ARTS: Musician knows the score [pg. 33]
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2018 Your community. Your stories.
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DRUG OVERDOSES
6 died due to drugs in Coq. in first three months of ’18 Diane StranDberg The Tri-CiTy News
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Centennial Centaurs’ captain Danae Robillard holds off Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils defender Maya Borrego in the first half of their Fraser Valley senior girls’ high school soccer semi-final match Monday at Town Centre Park. Kikki Bowen and Raegan Mackenzie scored goals in overtime to give Centennial a 4-2 victory and a place in Thursday’s final. Both the Centaurs and Blue Devils have already qualified for the provincial championships, beginning May 30 at UBC.
Illicit drugs, mostly contaminated by fentanyl, continue to take a heavy toll on young adults in B.C. — including Coquitlam residents — according to recent statistics from the provincial coroner. As many as six people died of overdoses in Coquitlam between Jan. 1 and March 31 of this year. B.C. has been battling an overdose crisis since 2016 and Coquitlam is on pace to match overdose numbers in 2017, when 29 people died from taking illicit drugs. While efforts have been made to alert users to the contamination of the illicit drug supply and to make free naloxone kits available, the death toll continues unabated, provincial data shows. In a press release, the BC Coroners Service notes that there were 161 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C. in March alone, a 24% increase over the same month in 2017. Preliminary data indicate that through the first three months of 2018, fentanyl was detected in post-mortem testing in more than eight of every 10 deaths (83%). Seven of every
Drug warning as grad party season progresses: pg. 8
10 of those who died were aged between 19 and 49 years. Through the first three months of 2018, there were 391 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C., on par with the 400 reported through the first three months of 2017. The city of Vancouver has seen 102 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths so far in 2018, an average of 34 per month, which is up from the 2017 average of 30.5 per month. The majority died indoors (90.5%). No deaths have been reported at supervised consumption sites or drug overdose prevention sites. More than 1,400 British Columbians died due to suspected illicit drug overdoses in 2017. The coroner is warning people who use drugs to not use alone and to have someone sober to call 911 immediately if an overdose occurs. dstrandberg@tricitynews.com @dstrandbergTC
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WILLS, ESTATES AND TRUSTS TEAM Lewis Nguyen
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