Toxic drug crisis

Members of the Tsilhqot'in Nation were at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Thursday calling for the British Columbia and Canadian governments to help expand support services in the battle against the toxic drug crisis.

British Columbia's premier says the ongoing toxic drug crisis in the province has led to a cohort of people with serious brain injuries who are too deep in their addiction and mental-health crisis to ask for help.

Deaths from toxic drugs may have dipped, but now is not the time to pull back on life-saving measures, especially given "misinformation" in the public discourse, the top doctor at British Columbia's First Nations Health Authority said on Monday.

It comes after David Eby's newly elected government eliminated the stand-alone Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, which advocates say had no "teeth."

Sunday marked eight years to the day since the province declared a public health emergency related to the deadly toxic drug crisis, and Graham said it's a sombre anniversary as she and others in public health reflect on the thousands of deaths. 

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.

The head of BC Housing announced his retirement on Tuesday, August 2, 2022, saying he no longer has confidence he can solve the complex problems facing the Crown agency.

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

The grieving moms who headed to Ottawa Wednesday to urge federal MPs to support a bill designed to tackle the deadly toxic drug crisis found their pleas fell on deaf ears.

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. 

Clearly, the stigma starts with the prime minister, says the NDP critic sponsoring the proposed legislation about the Liberals’ resistance to decriminalizing the personal possession of small amounts of drugs.

An innovative, experimental project takes steps to build empathy for those impacted by Canada’s toxic drug crisis in small Vancouver Island communities.