BC’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Judy Darcy, says early prevention is the way to tackle the province’s growing carfentanil problem.
According to Darcy, difficulties with detection make carfentanil a unique issue in the on-going opioid epidemic.
Carfentanil is a synthetic form of fentanil which is up to 100 times more toxic than morphine.
In 2018, the province recorded 35 illicit overdose deaths related to the drug, in January of this year alone, it was detected in 13 overdose deaths.
In March, there were 7 such cases in the Interior Health region alone.
