B-C’s addictions minister says the province will scale up use of an injectable drug to treat chronic substance users. Judy Darcy was responding after the B-C Centre on Substance Use released a report with guidelines for health-care providers to use hydromorphone as a treatment. Darcy says the province would be the first jurisdiction in North America to use hydromorphone in clinical practice for people struggling with long-term addiction. Hydromorphone has been used for a limited number of patients at one clinic in Vancouver but Darcy says she’s asked health authorities to expand the treatment on an urgent basis to prevent more overdose deaths.