Public health and the fentanyl crisis in BC

Abstract

A public health emergency was declared in BC on April 14, 2016 in response to the rise in opioid overdoses and deaths.(1) More than a year later, the opioid epidemic is still surging and has spread from the epicenter of the Downtown Eastside to touch every part of the province of BC. Dr. Jane Buxton is the Harm Reductions medical lead at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and a professor at the UBC Faculty of Medicine and School of Population and Public Health. Jane founded the Take Home Naloxone (THN) program in 2012. Under her leadership, the program has grown into one of the largest programs at BCCDC – expanded to 1453 distribution locations throughout BC and reversed 17,126 overdoses.(2) In our interview, Jane tells us about her career in public health, her thoughts on the current fentanyl crisis and the next steps in combatting it.