Vancouver officials are again raising concerns about the opioid overdose crisis, saying the March overdose toll will likely be worse than last month. The city said Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services responded to 104 overdose calls during the week of March 13, and police reported 21 suspected fatal overdoses by March 20, compared with 25 in all of February. Current injection programs limitedPrescription heroin has been pointed to as a potential fix for the fentanyl overdose crisis that has been ravaging the Downtown Eastside and affecting people across the province. "The federal government needs to make it easier for this to happen, and the provincial government needs to step up and provide the funding," she said. This is what needs to happen, and [they need] to put the systems in place to make it so."

Source: CBC News March 22, 2017 03:00 UTC