B.C. senator says fentanyl crisis worse than HIV/AIDS in '90s

B.C. Senator Larry Campbell says the province's ongoing fentanyl epidemic seemsworse than the HIV/AIDS crisis of the early '90s.

"It really feels worse than djvu,"Campbell, who served as a coroner during that time,told On The Coast guest host Gloria Macarenko. "The numbers are staggering."

"We were talking 250, 300 deaths a year," Campbell said of how HIV/AIDS impacted Vancouver. "And we're looking at that [number of overdose deaths] in literally the first quarter."

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Campbell says more needs to be done at the federal level, citing certain regulations "hampering" efforts to contain the crisis, including laws that restrict supervised injection sites.

He says the federal government needs to work with countries like India and China, which are the sources for much of the fentanyl coming into Canada.

"India and China both want to be partners, and my message at the federal level would be, 'you need to step up on this,'" Campbell said.

Campbell says he suspects the federal government will soon make pill presses illegal.He saysthere need to be "severe" penalties for anyone convicted of fentanyl distribution.

"Nobody in their right mind can tell me they don't know they're effectively putting out a death drug," he said. "If you're in possession of that, you know you're going to kill somebody."

Campbell also says the chemical industry in Canada needs to keep a tighter rein on precursor drugs that are ingredients for making fentanyl.

Health Canada has restricted the six drugs that are used to make fentanyl, but Campbell says it's still too easy for criminals to stealthose chemicals.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

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