The Victoria Police Department received five overdose calls Thursday night in the span of 12 hours, resulting in the death of one person, and exhausting their supply of naloxone kits.
The first call came in around 8:50 p.m. at the 400-block of Swift Street; police were responding to a domestic assault call but instead found one person experiencing an opioid overdose, with two people attempting to assist. On arrival the person had no pulse, but Police administered naloxone and the person had an effective response before being taken to hospital.
A second call just after 1 a.m. to the 700-block of Cormorant Street led police to a scene where one person was already being attended to by BC Emergency Health paramedics. Unfortunately, that person was unable to be revived. Police say the initial investigation points to a suspected opioid overdose, though the cause of death still needs to be officially determined by the BC Coroners Service.
A third call was made to the intersection of Amelia Street and Pandora Avenue around 5 a.m. where three separate people were experiencing opioid overdoses. The Victoria Police, the Victoria Fire Department and the BC Emergency Health Services Paramedics administered several rounds of naloxone to each person and all three were revived.
Overdoses are not uncommon in downtown Victoria, with a similar incident happening last year in Chinatown.
After the last call on Friday morning patrol officers had exhausted their supply of naloxone kits and had to return to their headquarters to restock.
