Medical detox coming to Campbell River

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The first community-based medical detox north of Nanaimo will be opening in Campbell River this fall. Island Health secured a location at 731 Nicholas Road near the North Island Hospital – Campbell River campus.  “This is a really exciting addition to Campbell River.  When people living with addiction reach out and make that brave choice of getting the services that they need, we'd need to be able to meet them where they are and with the services that they need right away. This is a new six bed medical detox that the community has been asking  for quite a while,” explained  Michele Babchuk, MLA for North Island and a resident of Campbell River.  
“This is part of the Road to Recovery initiative that is a made in BC initiative through our government,  that we're looking to come to full implementation in March of 2025.”  
 The province allocated $23.7 million to the Road to Recovery program in the 2023 budget and provided treatment for 4,167 people.     This news comes in the midst of British Columbia’s toxic drug crisis. According to a 5 year study from the BC Coroners Service, unregulated drug toxicity is the #1 cause of unnatural death among youth in the province. It is worse than suicide or automotive accidents. However the highest rate of deaths is among adults between the ages of 30 and 59.    There were 198 suspected drug related deaths in January, which works out to just under 61/2 a day. Vancouver, Surrey and Nanaimo were the most affected cities in the province, but North Vancouver Island has one of the worst death rates in the province, when measured proportionately. One of the five most afflicted Local Health Areas was Greater Campbell River. This is the part of eastern Vancouver Island between the Oyster River and Sayward, and also includes islands like Quadra and Cortes.