Spike in B.C. overdoses linked to veterinary additive in street drugs

They began collapsing late in the afternoon: four, five people at once – an alarming number of suspected drug overdoses at a Vancouver Island shelter where such incidents are infrequent.

As staff scrambled to respond, people rushed in from the street to grab kits of naloxone, the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. People were going down outside, they said. The nearby overdose-prevention site was also unusually busy.

Over a 36-hour period beginning Nov. 18, more than 80 people suffered illicit drug poisonings on those few blocks in Duncan. The disturbing increase was seen across much of British Columbia that week, breaking several records for drug-related emergency calls nearly a decade into the province’s toxic drug crisis.