By Spencer Sterritt

Nanaimo exceeds 2016 overdose fatalities with several months to go

Oct 16, 2017 | 5:52 PM

NANAIMO — With still several months left in the year, more people in Nanaimo have lost their lives to an overdose than all of 2016.

Updated statistics from the BC Coroners Service show 33 people died of fatal overdoses in Nanaimo so far in 2017, up from 24 through July. Twenty-eight people passed away last year. The stats show up to Aug. 31, leaving four months of fatal overdoses to report. More than 1,000 people died across B.C.

“It’s very uncomfortable to realize there’s a problem to that extent,” Nanaimo coun. Ian Thorpe told NanaimoNewsNOW.

He said guiding Nanaimo through the crisis and the creation of an overdose prevention site on Wesley St. has been a difficult time for council.

In May, Thorpe and five other councillors voted to defer a decision on rezoning the overdose prevention site as a supervised consumption site, which would allow the offering of more services and counselling.

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“Certainly we’ve heard loud and clear the concerns of the residents and business owners in the area and I have to listen to those and balance that against the need to address this opioid crisis and how we can save lives,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe said he was curious what alternatives Island Health could offer to users in Nanaimo and how much educating they did with the City and community about the possible options.

Dr. Paul Hasselback, medical health officer for Island Health, told NanaimoNewsNOW the option remains a site at 437 Wesley St.

He said adapting from the current overdose prevention site is the best choice because of the “additional ability to provide ongoing services of a more permanent nature that’s likely to be engaging and resolving some of the other the community is faced with.”

Wesley St. is downtown and surrounded by other social services and assistance agencies. Hasselback said previous research, before the overdose prevention site opened, showed it’s centered in an area where overdoses were happening already.

“This is where we would expect to have the greatest impact in reaching out. And I do think we’re starting to see some of that occurring.”

Coun. Thorpe said while the challenge ahead of Nanaimo City Council is daunting, there is some comfort in knowing they aren’t facing it along.

“It’s a growing problem in all other communities virtually around the province…We’re not in this alone and other communities like us are struggling to find the best way to cope with it and find solutions.”

It’s unknown when the rezoning issue will come before Nanaimo council again but Dr. Hasselback indicated his optimism about their eventual decision.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit