VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s chief coroner has announced the formation of a specialized drug-death investigation team as part of the province’s effort to fight an opioid overdose crisis.
Lisa Lapointe has said most of the fatal overdoses are the result of people taking fentanyl with another drug, mostly cocaine, and many don’t know they’re ingesting the deadly opioid.
BC Coroners Service spokeswoman Barb McLintock says drug deaths will be investigated in greater depth in an effort to prevent future tragedies.
She says funding will come from the $10-million fund announced by Premier Christy Clark in September for various projects including a centre to research addiction.
McLintock says the first drug-death investigation is expected to begin next month and that eventually all drug deaths that have already been investigated in 2016 will be more thoroughly analyzed.
She says reports on all the drug deaths will be available on a public database.
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