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In 2016, everyone from the chief medical health officer to the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons linked the growing epidemic of drug overdoses to doctors having over-prescribed opioids.

They pointed to the United States where there were high-profile convictions in Washington, California and Florida of doctors and pharmacists who illegally diverted Oxycontin to drug traffickers and addicts.

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More generally, they pointed to research that suggests eight per cent of the population is at risk of some form of addiction. And there were whispers about ordinary people selling their leftover or unwanted drugs to dealers or junkies.

But there was no evidence that over-prescribing was driving the crisis then and there’s no evidence of it now.

“We certainly haven’t found to date that there is a link between doctors’ prescription and illicit deaths,” Michael Egilson said in an interview. Egilson chaired the B.C. Coroner’s death review panel that investigated 1,854 overdose deaths in B.C. between Jan. 1, 2016 and July 31, 2017.