Canadian province fights against deadly drug overdose crisis

The Canadian province of British Columbia (B.C.) has been fighting against a deadly drug overdose crisis that killed about 800 people in 2016, according to local authorities.

Statistics from the province's coroner service showed that from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2016, 755 people died due to illegal drug overdoses.

That number is expected to climb to around 800 for the full year.

The fatal crisis will probably get worse, B.C.'s Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall told Xinhua earlier this week.

Kendall said more efforts are needed in the province to warn recreational drug users against using illegal drugs, and to help habitual users get into drug treatment programs and away from street dealers.

The reality of the overdose crisis has become painfully obvious, former Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Sarah Blyth told Xinhua.

Blyth has helped to set up an emergency medic tent in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the most populous city in the province, to cope with the rash of overdoses.

"We're seeing 100 to 300 people per day coming in, multiple times, using different types of drugs," Blyth said, adding that the majority were males.

Blyth's tent now has financial support from the local health authority, which opened five temporary safe injection sites in the region in recent months to protect users from overdoses.

As part of its response to the crisis, the province of B.C. has been providing naloxone kits, which are injections that can be administered by anyone to counteract the fatal symptoms of a fentanyl overdose.

More help is still needed from the provincial and federal governments to improve drug treatment programs, said Vancouver City Councillor Kerry Jang.