Overdose calls continue to increase in the Alberni Valley, and the manager of the local ambulance station expects numbers will be double what they were 2 years ago.
Paramedics were called to 77 overdoses in 2015, which increased by 20% to 92 last year, and 113 calls so far this year.
Chief paramedic Bruce Patterson said at the current rate, they could hit 135 overdose calls by the end of the year.
He said he’s been ordering far more naloxone and narcan drug antidotes this year.
Patterson said the actual number of overdoses is probably even higher, since many people are carrying noloxone kits.
He said the fentanyl crisis throughout the province is definitely here, and it affects everyone, and every level of society
While the number of actual overdose deaths is believed to be 5 or fewer this year, Patterson says most overdoses are from fentanyl.