** Vancouver medics in BC seeing big rise in drug overdose help hails
CANADA NEWS
** Vancouver paramedics are increasingly being dispatched to drug overdose calls, with new stats showing medics attended 6,324 such help hails in 2017 compared to only 4,700 the year before. That is the word from CTV News (January 17) which quoted Mayor Gregor Robertson as saying the spike is increasingly running EMS responders ragged. Along with the EMS figures, others stats show a disturbing rise in overdose deaths in the city. In 2017, 335 deaths occurred compared to 234 in 2016. Between January and October of 2017, meanwhile, there were 999 illicit drug overdose deaths across the province. Fentanyl played a part in 83 per cent of those cases.
