B.C. Premier John Horgan says it’s taking longer than he anticipated to make any sort of improvement in the province’s opioid crisis.
“It’s just not acceptable to the public. It’s just not acceptable to me and I think all British Columbians want us to get this wrestled to the ground.”
“I’m confident that we’re going as quickly as we can. I am personally disappointed that I continue to see numbers of deaths going up.”
Horgan says part of why movement has been so slow is due to the issue being so acute, but he is also blaming the federal government for saying the right things but not yet providing sufficient resources.
“Everytime I get the chance, I’m pushing, but ultimately the decisions have to be in concert, and in my opinion they’re not moving fast enough.”
Still, Horgan says the province has, in conjunction with the feds, opened more supervised injection sites and more replacement therapy is available.
Last Friday five people in Abbotsford died from overdoses in a 10-hour period.
By August of this year, more people across the province died from an overdose than during all of last year.
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