There’s no doubt that the fentanyl opioid crisis is on the increase at high speed. What can and should be done?
Scores of upset residents are screaming at the B.C. government for their lack of delivering a fentanyl crisis fix. But exactly how, when and where is this fix to be administered?
Current statistics prove that two people die of drug overdosing every day. B.C. already shows 550 deadly overdose cases in a nine-month period.
At this time, B.C. is the only province where addicts can get a heroin injection free of charge. In the Vancouver Crosstown clinic, addicts come in as many as three times per day to receive a prescribed heroin injection from a nurse, free of charge. The cost to treat these addicts in the clinic is $27,000 each year.
Is it any wonder that Vancouver is regularly lauded as the best place to live?
Another major problem that’s surfacing rapidly is the fact that many drug addicts and the fentanyl overdose cases are taking up more and more time from health care professionals.
I find it incredibly irresponsible when drug abusers get preferential treatment over the taxpaying needy citizen. Lamentable indeed is putting it mildly.
Nonetheless, the unquestionable answer to the opioid crisis can only be answered by encouraging sobriety treatments rather then by paying large amounts of money and enticing them to continue using these life-altering drugs and living in disgraceful, inordinately unhealthy living conditions.
For the drug addict there is only one clear cut answer – get into rehabilitation or die prematurely.
Gertie Pool