Drug deaths spike in Nanaimo
The rate of illicit drug toxicity deaths in the Greater Nanaimo area is also more than double the rate for the rest of Island Health. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM.
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Recent figures show illicit drug poisonings attended by the BC Emergency Health Services in Nanaimo are more than double the per capita rate when compared to other communities within Island Health.
In a presentation to Nanaimo City Council on Monday, Dr. Shannon Waters, current interim Medical Health Officer for the Nanaimo area, along with some of her colleagues, spoke about the current rise in toxic drugs around the city.
Waters started off the presentation by speaking about her feelings about being interim Medical Health Officer for the area.
“I also want to acknowledge that having been the medical health officer in the Cowichan Valley region, when I took on being interim for this area and saw this data, it affected me really deeply because it's very different and much more extensive than the data that I present within the Cowichan Valley,” Waters said.
Waters went on to present that in the first ten months of 2023, BC Emergency Health Services attended 964 illicit drug poisoning in the Greater Nanaimo area. This is a rise from 586 poisoning from last year. This total equals to an average of 89 overdoses attended per month between October 2022 and October 2023.
In the presentation, they said that most of the attended overdoses were in Nanaimo’s downtown area and that 56 per cent of overdoses were occurring outside with 36 per cent occurring at a private residence.
The rate of suspected opioid-related overdoses in Nanaimo has increased 1.7 times since 2022 while the rate for the rest of Island Health remained stable.
In 2022 85 Nanaimo residents died from illicit drug toxicity, and so far 99 residents have lost their lives in the first ten months of 2023.
The rate of illicit drug toxicity deaths in the Greater Nanaimo area is also more than double the rate for the rest of Island Health. This wider area includes Gabriola and Cedar.
When asked about the rates compared to other cities in the province, Waters said she didn’t know the exact numbers but looking at the most recent coroners report, Nanaimo stuck out.
“With regards to the rest of the province, I don't have it at the tip of my tongue, but Nanaimo certainly is sticking out as an outlier with some of the data across the province, as well,” Waters said.
During the question period after the presentation, Councillor Erin Hemmens asked what Island Health is doing to help in the face of higher overdose numbers in Nanaimo.
Dana Leik, Director of Island Health answered the question, saying that currently the overdose prevention site on Albert Street which has been in Nanaimo for almost a year is seeing high volumes of people.
“And the volume of people that are utilizing that resource continues to have high volumes, greater in other than in other areas within Island health for overdose prevention services,” Leik said. “We hope that we can be able to bolster that service so that there would be an increase in hours of operation, which is a service that is life-saving.”
Leik also mentioned that there is a need for housing as the data shows that most overdoses are happening outside.
“Many folks here know that we are working with the City and BC Housing to identify a location for complex care housing, which would enable people to access various streams of the housing continuum from shelter base to supportive living into the complex care housing that is coming with 20 net new units,” Leik said.
Amanda Lemon, MHSU manager of Community Services, also added that the lack of housing also makes it difficult for emergency services to locate people who may be overdosing.
“And for our outreach teams and our healthcare teams, it's so much more challenging and difficult to locate people, when they don't have a home or or accessing a shelter. They don't have phones,” Lemon said. “So they're continuing to work hard on building relationships with the community and make sure that community members know where they are when they can access them, and being as mobile as possible.”
Councillor Janice Perrino told the presenters, that she is currently struggling to find an answer to give Nanaimo residents when they come up to her and ask why deaths from overdoses have been going up when the overdose prevention site has been open for almost a year.
“So there's so many more deaths already. What people are saying to me is ‘what a mistake it is that we are giving out free drugs to help to keep people alive and yet more are dying’, and I don't know how to answer that question,” Perrino said.
The Albert Street OPS does not provide safe supply. It only provides drug checking, and supervision to prevent overdose.
Lemon responded clarifying that it is the illicit drugs that are taking people’s lives as the toxins make it harder to stop an overdose.
“Incredibly different compared to six years ago, where you administer Naloxone and had a good effect,” Lemon said. “The presentation and complexity of folks because of the contaminants in the illicit drug supply makes it so much more difficult to attend and support them through that.”
Dr Roger Walmsley, Island Health Addiction Medicine Physician also said that there is currently no data that suggests that safe supply is contributing to more opiate use disorder.
“The reality is that only 5 per cent of the people who have opiate use disorder are receiving safe supply,” Walmsley said.
Councillor Ben Geselbracht asked as overdoses and overdose deaths were much higher for those aged 25 to 44, why there was an increase in the age range and if this equals to a lot more first-time users overdosing or dying from the overdose. Geselbracht also mentioned a CBC article that found that a lot more high school students were using drugs at parties not knowing they were opioids.
In the presentation, they left out the stats on people under the age of 25 for privacy.
Walmsley mentions what he and his colleagues have seen working with youth and drugs in Nanaimo.
“Some of my primary care colleagues will tell me about teenage individuals who have gotten a hold of hydromorphone,” Walmsley said. “The only saving grace is that the hydromorphone itself is not killing them. It only really leads to death of course, if they start using illicit street supply.”
Walmsley goes on to tell a story of what he saw just that morning.
“This morning I was in the hospital, and I saw a young man who usually does not use illicit supplies,” Walmsley said. “He was smoking, he was using some cannabis with some friends, a friend passed from a joint, it ended up as an overdose of fentanyl.”
Walmsley went on to say that it is the contaminants in the supply that is leading to more overdoses, and complicating treatment.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.