The B.C. government launched an Opioid Treatment Access Line on Tuesday to help people access life-saving medication to treat opioid-use disorder and connect to same-day care.
The Opioid Treatment Access Line is a provincewide telephone-based health service.
People struggling with opioid addiction can call 1-833-804-8111 toll-free for immediate assistance from a dedicated team, including doctors and nurses, who can prescribe life-saving opioid agonist medications.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said the province is working to improve access to treatment, no matter how long it takes someone to accept help.
“Their life is worth saving and we’re going to do everything that we can to make that service and that care made available to them no matter how many times it takes,” she said.
However, critics of the B.C. government said the focus on helping those dealing with drug addiction is still wrong.
“What we believe as BC United is not in free drugs or drug paraphernalia for people struggling with addiction, but free treatment,” leader Kevin Falcon said.
The announcement happened on the same day that a memorial was unveiled in Campbell River to remember every man or boy killed by toxic drugs in B.C.
The memorial featured a sea of 12,000 blue flags on the lawn outside city hall.
“Some of them are professionals in the trades, some of them are trying drugs for the very first time… second, third, fourth time,” Phil Salter with the North Island Supportive Recovery Society said.
“They just get a bad batch and they become a statistic.”
The focus on treatment is in contrast to the harm reduction kiosks at hospitals in Nanaimo and Campbell River.
They act like vending machines and can supply everything from Naloxone to pipes.
Gwen O’Mahony, Conservative Party of BC candidate for the new riding of Nanaimo Lantzville, said it is concerning these machines are available to anyone.
“These machines could be a trigger to someone who’s freshly coming off of drugs,” she said. “Seeing a crackpipe is a trigger to use again.”
B.C. Premier David Eby said he is now ordering a review of the Island Health kiosks, along with Fraser Health’s drug supply delivery service.
More than 14,000 people have died since the province declared toxic drugs an emergency in 2016.