Fraser Health becomes latest to implement toxic drug warning system

A new alert system has been launched in Fraser Health to warn people when toxic drugs are circulating in their communities.

In a joint venture between the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and Fraser Health Authority, text notifications will be sent to subscribers sharing information about toxicity in drugs in their region.

The anonymous Toxic Drug and Health Alerts system is being launched in part to help prevent toxic drug poisonings. The health authority is the latest district to implement the service after Interior Health and Vancouver Coastal launched similar systems earlier this year.

Related Articles:

• Deaths of people experiencing homelessness in B.C. skyrocketed by 75% in 2021: coroner

• Nearly 1,500 deaths from toxic drug supply in first 8 months of 2022

• A new memoir explores a mother’s grief in the shadow of B.C.’s toxic drug crisis

In a statement Thursday, provincial Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson says there have been “so many lives” lost to the toxic drug crisis.

“The Toxic Drug and Health Alerts System is one more tool that can save lives, along with the treatment beds, prevention, and harm reduction actions we are expanding with urgency,” she added.

In the first eight months of this year, the BC Coroners Service reports that nearly 1,500 people died in the province from the toxic drug supply, with the highest number of deaths happening in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions.

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe last month noted the immense risk the illicit drug market poses to communities across B.C.

“People … across B.C. are continuing to lose friends, family members, and colleagues to the unprecedented toxicity of the unregulated drug supply,” Lapointe said.

The Fraser Health Authority’s president and CEO, Dr. Victoria Lee, says the alert system is just another piece of the integrated, wraparound approach to care for people who use substances.

“As we grieve the lives that have been lost to the public health overdose emergency, it is critical that we look at new and timely ways of sharing information, gathered from people in our community who are witnessing the drug poisoning crisis firsthand,” Lee said.

The text message alert system is also supported by the health authority’s existing email notification system, which shares information about specific drugs in circulation or sudden increases in drug poisonings.

People who sign up to receive alerts can also submit information to the service about their own experience with drugs, all anonymously.

A physical description of the drug, its packaging, where the drug was purchased, and what it is believed to be is all submitted in efforts to educate the drug-using community.

Fraser Health also says it is expanding its drug-checking services with three portable Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometer machines in use at supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites around the authority.

More information about the alert system can be found at Towards the Heart.