Opioid crisis hits BC First Nations hard

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – First Nations leaders in British Columbia say they suspect their communities have been hit hardest by the opioid crisis.

Chief Wayne Christian says the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council declared a state of emergency earlier this year, when five people were buried within the span of a week.

The province has yet to release data on the total number of indigenous people killed in the crisis, but Christian says numbers couldn’t quantify the loss his community has experienced.

“The hard part for me is when people talk statistics they you know, 20 per cent works out to ‘x’ number of people, say 50 or 60 people, those people aren’t numbers to us, those are our relatives.”

Christian says since calling a state of emergency, more people in his community are aware of the risks of using illicit drugs.

But he says more services are needed for treating addictions and the trauma that leads to substance abuse.

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