British Columbia’s medical health officer recently gave nurses the ability to prescribe opioid replacement drugs to improve the supply. Many more people are dying from toxic street drugs than are dying from COVID-19. It’s a “shadow pandemic” that has been raging for decades and is only getting worse as border closures make it harder for gangs to move drugs like heroin and fentanyl across borders, leading to shortages of “safe” ingredients and a shift toward exotic, extremely toxic alternatives like carfentanyl.