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A new report being released Thursday is expected to outline a possible model for legally regulated heroin sales.

Produced by the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, the report aims to address the ongoing opioid crisis, organized crime’s role in the drug trade and the profitability of an unregulated fentanyl market.

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The report’s authors are scheduled to speak Thursday at a news conference on the proposal, alongside public health officials, addiction specialists and recovered substance-users.

Earlier this month the B.C. Coroners Service reported 1,489 people died of a suspected illicit-drug overdose in B.C. in 2018, up from 1,487 in 2017.

Most who died were men (80 per cent) aged 30-59 (71 per cent), and most died indoors (86 per cent). Fentanyl, an opioid being cut into heroin and other drugs, was detected in about 85 per cent of the deaths, up from 82 per cent in 2017.

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