More than one-million naloxone kits have been shipped across B.C.: Provincial Health Services Authority

The Provincial Health Services Authority and BC Centre for Disease Control say more than one-million naloxone kits have been shipped across BC since 2012, more than a quarter of them last year, alone.

The kits are used to reverse opioid overdoses and a statement from the province says mathematical modelling shows naloxone averted more than three-thousand potentially fatal overdoses between January 2015 and March of this year.

But users and those working to reduce the deadly toll from the ongoing illicit drug crisis say naloxone is not enough as BC endures the highest-ever rate of overdoses, roughly five deaths every day.

The province says decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs, making it a medical issue rather than a criminal one, is vital to reducing the stigma of drug use, in turn leading to treatment and healing.