There’s been a spike in drug overdoes in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, prompting health officials to warn that all illicit drugs may be contaminated with lethal substances.
The upsurge began two weekends ago when 43 persons overdosed between Friday and Monday.
An average of three persons a day have need hospital care since.
One person died and health authorities say several other deaths are suspected to have been caused by overdoses since the latest outbreak.
The chief medical health officer of Fraser Health, Dr. Victoria Lee, says the contaminants could be in heroin, crack, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and GHB.
She issued the warning to both recreational drug users and addicts on Thursday, a day after Premier Christy Clark announced a task force on overdose response.
In April, a surge of overdose deaths prompted the province to declare a public health emergency.
Authorities then said most of the 200 deaths were related to the synthetic opioid, fentanyl
Officials said if the rate continued as many as 800 people could die from overdoses this year across the province.
Officials say t
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