Shelter runs out of naloxone as B.C. community sees 80 drug overdoses in 24 hours

A shelter in B.C.’s Cowichan Valley ran out of naloxone last week after the area saw an estimated 80 toxic drug poisonings in a 24-hour period, according to officials.

Erin Kapela, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Cowichan Valley Branch, said reports of “a very high number of overdoses” at a Duncan shelter it operates, as well as the surrounding area, started pouring in on the evening of Nov. 18.

“We've never experienced something quite like that,” she told CBC’s _All Points West_.

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“It was really scary.”

[The Warmland House Shelter in Duncan, B.C., responded to a sharp increase in toxic drug poisonings on Nov. 18.] The Warmland House Shelter in Duncan, B.C., responded to a sharp increase in t