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2018 was British Columbia’s deadliest year for illicit drug overdose deaths despite the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into mitigating the continuing public health crisis.

An average of four British Columbians died each day, a rate that has resulted in a drop in the predicted life expectancy for everyone living here.

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British Columbia — and Vancouver, in particular — is the centre of the national crisis even though it has long been the testing ground for harm-reduction strategies that have included free needles, supervised injection sites and opioid replacement therapies including methadone, Suboxone and, more recently, pharmaceutical-grade heroin.

B.C. has led Canada in getting free naloxone — the antidote for opioid overdoses — into the hands of emergency responders and users. It has set up free drug-testing sites.

Photo by DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver funded an expansion of a pilot project to provide pharmaceutical-grade heroin to users on the Downtown Eastside. Soon, addicts may be able to get their daily dose from vending machines.