Many people suffering from an addiction to opioids in British Columbia are turning to a new source of currency to support their addiction: the forest.
A recent report by The Atlantic details the struggle to rein in the region’s growing number of illegal loggers, who can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars selling the area’s valued Douglas fir to mills or locals in need of firewood. The increase of timber theft has coincided with a spike in opioid addiction and opioid-related deaths in British Columbia, and illegal sales of the protected timber are often made to support the addictions, according to the report.
In the past five years, national resource officers in British Columbia have reported 2,300 forest crimes, most of them regarding illegal timber harvesting. Only half of those cases have been investigated.
The full report can be found here.
