Sheila Malcolmson

The B.C. government introduced legislation Tuesday setting 10-year targets to substantially reduce poverty in the province, focusing on children, while also making a first-time commitment to cut seniors' poverty by 50 per cent.

The toxic drug crisis in British Columbia was a key factor in pushing the number of deaths of homeless people up by 75 per cent in 2021 compared with the year before, the BC Coroners Service says.

Maria Rantanen did everything she could to stop her son from fatally overdosing, but it wasn't enough.

The coroners service in British Columbia says more females are dying from illicit drug use.

Uruguay, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and the state of Oregon all have introduced some form of decriminalization in an effort to curb overdose deaths.

Response to Ottawa’s historic announcement that it will decriminalize the personal possession of small amounts of illegal drugs in British Columbia ran the gamut Tuesday. 

B.C. has requested a cumulative threshold of 4.5 grams for opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine, but the federal government is mulling a 2.5-gram cumulative threshold, decriminalization advocates say.

Some Canadian cities and provinces are trying to decriminalize possession of small amounts of drugs in their jurisdictions as thousands of people die of overdoses each year.

A report into an investigation of 6,007 overdose deaths in British Columbia calls on the province to urgently develop a policy to distribute a safer supply of drugs and offer better health supports with a plan that would see action taken over 30, 60 and 90 days.

Illicit toxic drugs in British Columbia cause more deaths than all other natural causes combined, the province’s chief coroner said Wednesday as she called for an end to old prevention measures that have been "an abject and very costly failure."

Stacity Bailie had been awaiting approval to enter a drug rehabilitation program when she died of an overdose on Oct. 22.

British Columbia is applying to the federal government to remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of illicit drugs in an effort to help more people get care in a health crisis that has claimed 7,700 lives over five years.

British Columbia needs a significant shift in how it treats people who use drugs, the province's chief coroner said on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, after releasing statistics showing 1,011 people died from suspected illicit overdoses from January to June.

Fentanyl patches and injectable opioids will be prescribed as alternatives to deadly street drugs and be covered by PharmaCare as part of B.C.'s new safer supply plan.

Leslie McBain, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH), a group comprised of families that have lost loved ones to toxic street drugs, said the unrelenting, yet preventable toxic drug deaths, are wearying.