Coquitlam
Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
Buchanan Square at city hall gets an upgrade.
New View Society uses technology to connect.
Local pub owner will run city’s third cannabis shop.
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T H U R S D AY
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JUNE 18
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2020
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OPIOID CRISIS
IN A PICKLE
Eight ODs so far in Coquitlam Province grappling with two public health crises STEFAN LABBÉ slabbe@tricitynews.com
Port Moody’s Irene Mah said she was thrilled to participate in a video project to promote pickleball by helping “propel” the plastic ball around the world, including a stop in the Antarctic. For the story, see page 29. mario bartel/tHe tri-CitY NeWS
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Coquitlam has registered eight overdose deaths so far in 2020, according to a recently released BC Coroners report. That puts the city among the top 14 municipalities in the province in illicit drug toxicity deaths between January and May of this year. By comparison, 11 deaths were recorded in the whole of 2019, and in 2017, Coquitlam’s most deadly year on record led to 30 deaths due to overdose. Across the province, the report paints a grim trend this year as overdose deaths have slowly ticked up from 77 in January to 170 in May, the highest ever monthly overdose death toll on record and a 93% increase compared to last May. To date, 554 people
have died of an overdose this year in B.C. In an interview with the Canadian Press this week, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said the federal government should take bold action on the overdose epidemic as it has done with COVID-19. “You can’t help but draw the parallel that far more lives have been lost to substance use than to the pandemic,” said Lapointe. Most of those overdose deaths (85%) were found to happen inside such as someone’s home, social housing unit, SRO or shelter. However, no one was found to have died of an overdose in one of the province’s supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said dealing with both the COVID-19 pandemic and an overdose crisis at the same time has overwhelmed the province’s resources.
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