B-C has set another record for monthly overdose deaths related to illicit drugs. The provincial coroner’s service says 175 fatalities in June surpassed the previous high of 171 deaths in May. That’s prompted the former provincial health officer to call for radical steps to reduce fatalities including access to pharmaceutical-grade heroin produced in Canada. Dr. Perry Kendall, now interim director at the B-C Centre on Substance Use, says access to injectable diacetylmorphine needs to be ramped up. It’s been used as an addiction treatment in some European countries
