Nine suspected deaths.
One-hundred and fifty-six calls that Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services has responded to.
And that’s just the last 10 days in Vancouver’s drug overdose crisis.
Coverage of drug overdoses on Globalnews.ca:
Those are the sobering numbers that people were reminded about on International Overdose Awareness Day (Aug. 31).
It’s a day that’s been marked around the world since 2001 but it has taken on added significance as various places, including B.C., cope with an overdose crisis that is on track to take a record number of lives this year — just one year after the province marked its worst year for drug overdose deaths.
There have been 780 drug overdose deaths in 2017, according to the BC Coroners Service.
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That’s nearly double the number of people who died in the same period last year, which was the worst ever for deaths by illicit drugs, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a news release.
In Vancouver alone, the 2016 total has already been beaten, and 400 deaths are expected by year’s end.
READ MORE: ‘This crisis does not discriminate’: Kelowna events mark International Overdose Awareness Day
It’s a crisis that Clive Derbyshire has watched first hand from his station as a paramedic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).
Derbyshire works in the area so that it can give him a “constant reminder of where I was at.”
It wasn’t long ago that the paramedic was addicted to drugs and alcohol himself. And now every overdose call gives him a glance at what could have been.
“I knew that my life was at a breaking point and I didn’t want to die,” he told Global News.
International Overdose Awareness Day was marked with events throughout Vancouver, at the art gallery, and in the DTES, where people held hands in tribute to souls that couldn’t be saved.
“When we lose them, we hurt so badly,” one person said at the DTES gathering.
READ MORE: Vancouver overdose calls skyrocket in June, slight downturn in deaths
“Once or twice a week I hear about somebody dying of a fentanyl overdose that I personally know,” Kutrina Blake, a former addict, told Global News.
Her son Shaye was with her, so that he could learn that even experimenting with drugs could be a death sentence.
“It’s not safe, because you can die,” he said.
Lapointe said that about 90 per cent of illicit drug overdose deaths happen inside, and that more than half of those happen in private homes.
Many cases saw people using drugs alone in bedrooms or bathrooms. Even when there were other people at home, they didn’t know that a loved one was experiencing an overdose.
“It is imperative that anyone using illicit drugs use them in the presence of someone who is aware of overdose symptoms, and who is willing and able to provide immediate medical assistance and call for emergency help,” Lapointe said.
She noted that new federal legislation provides immunity from simple possession charges if you call 911.
Lapointe also urged friends and family to consider obtaining naloxone kits and to receive training from a pharmacist.
“We are losing too many loved and valued members of our communities at a tragic rate,” she said.
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