180 free treatment beds for people with addictions announced in B.C.

“When you’re ready for help, when you have a moment of clarity, it’s hard to get into places. There's wait lists.”

That was Richard Thompson's message Thursday at a news conference hosted by the provincial government, as it announced funding for more public treatment and recovery beds.

Thompson has been clean and sober for two years after finally getting the help he needed – help that he says saved his life.

“I was lucky to get in and I know if I didn’t get into Discovery House, I’d be one of those numbers that you were just talking about, those 2,500 people (who died of overdoses in the province last year). I was overdosing once a day, twice a day,” said Thompson.

The province announced Thursday that it was funding 180 treatment beds across B.C. Many of the beds are already in operation. All of them are desperately needed, none more so than the 20 treatment beds exclusively for women that are coming to a View Royal treatment facility run by Our Place Society later this year.

Julian Daly, the society's chief executive, called it the best news of his career.

“When I first heard it, I cried. It brought tears to my eyes because I see every day the people who are living on the streets in addiction,” said Daly.

Still, as B.C. battles the crisis that claimed more lives than ever last year, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe voiced concern Wednesday that the province lacks a plan and hasn’t kept the data needed to assess what's working.

“I don’t know if a bed makes a difference and I don’t know which makes a difrference and there is no outcome data available for the beds that have been funded in the last five years,” said Lapointe at a news conference where she announced the province had endured a record number of toxic drug overdose deaths in 2023.

Premier David Eby promised Thursday that such data is coming. He also weighed in on why the province is appealing last month's court ruling that temporarily put legislation restricting public drug use on hold.

“(To) maintain British Columbians' support for the idea that the criminal law is not the right way to deal with addiction, we also have to reassure British Columbians that they don’t have to give up their parks," Eby said. "They don't have to give up their bus stops.”

While harm reduction advocates – including Lapointe – have pushed back on the govenrment's plans to restict public drug use, BC United leader Kevin Falcon says the province should have acted sooner.

“Of course they should appeal it. I don’t know why it took them weeks what would have taken me two minutes,” said Falcon.

With more than 200,000 drug users in B.C. and more than 2,500 toxic drug overdose deaths last year, the main point of consensus is that dramatic action is needed.