VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The man in charge of regional transit services hopes the success of the Evergreen Line might speed up approval of other rapid rail projects in Metro Vancouver.

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond says increased ridership of more than four per cent across the system last year is proof work needs to start on the new Broadway line.

“The demand is there. I mean, look at Canada Line. Huge success. Ridership continues to grow. Evergreen extension – another really, really good example.”

He expects the Millenium Line extension along Broadway will be another success.

“We hope to get fully-funded by the end of this year.”

Since it opened in December, Desmond says the Evergreen Line’s daily ridership has been strong.

“About 30,000 daily boardings. I think that represented something like half of all of the transit trips from that service area, so Evergreen’s going well. It’s definitely fuelling ridership growth.”

He adds overall ridership is up more than five per cent for the first quarter of this year.

“It’s nothing, but success going forward and as communities develop around those stations. As we’ve seen happen in Burnaby for example and New Westminster, I think the demand for Evergreen is going to be ever-increasing.”

OTTAWA -- Provinces have been protesting the large volume of work and heavy costs they say the Trudeau government has piled on them in its rush to legalize recreational cannabis across Canada by next year.

So far, however, the small province of New Brunswick has been taking the high road.

Unlike other members of the federation, New Brunswick isn't pressing for federal compensation to cover the bills of pot legalization, nor is it in a particular scramble to draw up the plans, the province's health minister said.

Provinces have been busy since the federal government tabled legislation last month to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana use, with a primary aim of keeping weed out of the hands of youth and criminals. Ottawa hopes to make it happen by July 2018.

"We didn't just wait for the federal legislation and then start -- we started doing our homework and our due diligence well before, anticipating what the federal legislation was going to look like," New Brunswick Health Minister Victor Boudreau said in an interview.

"There's no question if the federal government is willing to help with some of the up-front costs -- I'm sure we wouldn't say no to that. But I'm not necessarily saying that would be necessary just yet, either."

New Brunswick's enthusiasm is connected to the fact the province views pot legalization as a future driver for its struggling economy.

Premier Brian Gallant has been trying to position New Brunswick to ensure it gets a big percentage of Canada's eventual regulated-pot industry, which he predicts will generate "significant" growth.

Some provinces, however, aren't expecting meaningful windfalls -- if any at all -- once startup costs are factored in. They've also expressed concern about what they see as a hurried course set by Ottawa toward legalization.

Quebec Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois warns that meeting the federal timeline will be a challenge as provinces, territories and municipalities race to develop complex pot-related rules, programs and strategies within their own jurisdictions.

Setting guidelines related to the minimum legal age, retail sales, public health, education and security are among the wide range of needs.

Charlebois said in an interview that 13 different departments in her government have been hustling to prepare for the pot legalization.

"We don't have so much time, so we've got to go fast," said Charlebois, who adds that she supports the principle of marijuana legalization but would have liked Ottawa to provide a more rigorous regulatory framework.

"It's a big responsibility and it's not an ordinary product -- I'm not talking about popcorn, I'm talking about cannabis. So, we've got to make sure that we do things properly."

She also has doubts that tax revenue from cannabis will be enough to cover costs of preparing for everything that will come with regulation. Taxes on pot are expected to stay low to ensure the regulated market elbows out illegal dealers.

"A lot of people think there's going to be some profits -- I'm not sure about that," she said.

Quebec isn't alone in questioning Ottawa's approach.

Shortly after the federal legislation was tabled, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warned the provinces would be left with a lot of "heavy lifting" and that there would be considerable costs associated with administrating legalized pot.

Quebec politicians, including Charlebois herself, have already sparred publicly with federal Health Minister Jane Philpott, alleging Ottawa downloaded too much responsibility onto the provinces.

Philpott shot down Charlebois' assertion in a recent, open letter published in Montreal's La Presse newspaper. She called the accusation "clearly misleading."

The federal minister said while the provinces must make decisions in areas such as distribution, she argued they're already forced to deal with consequences of the illegal market.

Philpott said the status quo costs the provinces and justice systems a lot of money, while criminal activity continues to grow.

The federal government, Philpott added, is pledging to work with provinces and will commit more resources to pot-related needs like public security, policing and educational campaigns.

"Our starting position is that the current system of prohibition is very expensive in and of itself," said David Clements, who is a spokesman for Philpott.

He said the move towards legalization is not intended to add a heavier burden on provinces and could even reduce existing costs significantly.

Clements also argued the government had been signalling its intentions on pot legalization for some time, thus the changes should not have come as a surprise. In addition, the country already has a strong starting point with its medical marijuana regime, he added.

Back in New Brunswick, the provincial government is moving forward in its drive to be a Canadian leader in the recreational pot business.

It has provided producers with financial incentives, has developed a college course in marijuana cultivation and recently announced that Fredericton's St. Thomas University will establish a new cannabis research chair, with a goal of guiding public policy.

"We're ahead of the curve," Boudreau said.

Early Friday morning the world experienced the year’s latest cyberattack.

Starting first in the United Kingdom and Spain, the malicious “WannaCrypt” software quickly spread globally, blocking customers from their data unless they paid a ransom using Bitcoin. The WannaCrypt exploits used in the attack were drawn from the exploits stolen from the National Security Agency, or NSA, in the United States. That theft was publicly reported earlier this year. A month prior, on March 14, Microsoft had released a security update to patch this vulnerability and protect our customers. While this protected newer Windows systems and computers that had enabled Windows Update to apply this latest update, many computers remained unpatched globally. As a result, hospitals, businesses, governments, and computers at homes were affected.

All of this provides the broadest example yet of so-called “ransomware,” which is only one type of cyberattack. Unfortunately, consumers and business leaders have become familiar with terms like “zero day” and “phishing” that are part of the broad array of tools used to attack individuals and infrastructure. We take every single cyberattack on a Windows system seriously, and we’ve been working around the clock since Friday to help all our customers who have been affected by this incident. This included a decision to take additional steps to assist users with older systems that are no longer supported. Clearly, responding to this attack and helping those affected needs to be our most immediate priority.

At the same time, it’s already apparent that there will be broader and important lessons from the “WannaCrypt” attack we’ll need to consider to avoid these types of attacks in the future. I see three areas where this event provides an opportunity for Microsoft and the industry to improve.

As a technology company, we at Microsoft have the first responsibility to address these issues. We increasingly are among the first responders to attacks on the internet. We have more than 3,500 security engineers at the company, and we’re working comprehensively to address cybersecurity threats. This includes new security functionality across our entire software platform, including constant updates to our Advanced Threat Protection service to detect and disrupt new cyberattacks. In this instance, this included the development and release of the patch in March, a prompt update on Friday to Windows Defender to detect the WannaCrypt attack, and work by our customer support personnel to help customers afflicted by the attack.

But as this attack demonstrates, there is no cause for celebration. We’ll assess this attack, ask what lessons we can learn, and apply these to strengthen our capabilities. Working through our Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Digital Crimes Unit, we’ll also share what we learn with law enforcement agencies, governments, and other customers around the world.

Second, this attack demonstrates the degree to which cybersecurity has become a shared responsibility between tech companies and customers. The fact that so many computers remained vulnerable two months after the release of a patch illustrates this aspect. As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, there is simply no way for customers to protect themselves against threats unless they update their systems. Otherwise they’re literally fighting the problems of the present with tools from the past. This attack is a powerful reminder that information technology basics like keeping computers current and patched are a high responsibility for everyone, and it’s something every top executive should support.

At the same time, we have a clear understanding of the complexity and diversity of today’s IT infrastructure, and how updates can be a formidable practical challenge for many customers. Today, we use robust testing and analytics to enable rapid updates into IT infrastructure, and we are dedicated to developing further steps to help ensure security updates are applied immediately to all IT environments.

Finally, this attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem. This is an emerging pattern in 2017. We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world. Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen. And this most recent attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cybersecurity threats in the world today – nation-state action and organized criminal action.

The governments of the world should treat this attack as a wake-up call. They need to take a different approach and adhere in cyberspace to the same rules applied to weapons in the physical world. We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits. This is one reason we called in February for a new “Digital Geneva Convention” to govern these issues, including a new requirement for governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them. And it’s why we’ve pledged our support for defending every customer everywhere in the face of cyberattacks, regardless of their nationality. This weekend, whether it’s in London, New York, Moscow, Delhi, Sao Paulo, or Beijing, we’re putting this principle into action and working with customers around the world.

We should take from this recent attack a renewed determination for more urgent collective action. We need the tech sector, customers, and governments to work together to protect against cybersecurity attacks. More action is needed, and it’s needed now. In this sense, the WannaCrypt attack is a wake-up call for all of us. We recognize our responsibility to help answer this call, and Microsoft is committed to doing its part.

I am so tired of hearing millennials whine about not being able to live in Vancouver.

“I can’t afford a place to live,” or “I’ve been looking for months for a decent job” and “I left my growler in the car2go,” are all common complaints bleeding out of the open windows of board-game-themed restaurants all over the east side.

Clearly, these are people who aren’t looking hard enough.

Had any of them bothered to put their Cards Against Humanity games on hold for just a few minutes and pull out their phones, they might have noticed a Craigslist ad promising gainful employment as well as accommodation in a prime East Vancouver location.

There are a few catches.

“We require someone who is capable of working hard in a high-energy environment and remaining calm,” reads the ad. So far, so good.

“Multitasking and cleaning is a huge part of the job, so you must love to clean.” Maybe I don’t love to clean – but I’m okay with it.

“This job is not all puppies and snuggling (although that does happen a lot :) ).”

And it actually might – the posting is for an overnight attendant at a dog daycare, conveniently nestled between railway shunting yards on Industrial Avenue. If you’ve ever had your car towed, you’ve likely driven past it.

They are, according to the ad, “Very busy and open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.”

“You will need some day training in the daycare before you can move in as we want to make sure you’re a right fit and feel comfortable with dogs, cats, pigs, reptiles. We care for every animal!”

The ad continues: “We have a set-up, upstairs with own room and kitchen. Working five nights a week from 8 p.m. - 6 a.m. for $800 a month plus free rent.”

Let me do the math: a 50-hour work week for $800 a month works out to four dollars an hour.

But free rent! The poster was good enough to provide pictures of the bedroom (but not the kitchen.) It can be described as makeshift at best, with unfinished drywall, a distressed (not in a good way) bare plywood floor, and faux apple crates affixed to a wall as shelving. On the upside, there is a flat-screen TV, which I assume is console-game compatible.

Oh, wait – it looks like you have to sleep with the dogs: “Bed and TV in the dog overnight room for staff to sleep with the dogs during the night.”

It’s not clear whether the bedroom in the picture is the same room where the dogs also bunk down. But it may explain the stains on the plywood.

How much sleep you actually get may also be in question.

“The position entails the night crew monitor the overnight dogs and attend to any after-hours dogs. Our doors are locked and parents text when outside to pick up and drop off.”

Because people with dogs are “parents.”

But look, if the dogs don’t keep you up with their dog needs, and dog parents aren’t texting at all hours to pick up and drop off their offspring, you’re pretty much getting paid four bucks an hour to sleep. That’s pretty sweet. Unless, you know, the trains.

The ad concludes with a request for information: “What city you live in. Why you want to work with dogs. What kind of dog you would be and why?”

Hmm, that last one is hard. I don’t know much about dog breeds but is there one that isn’t prone to being taken advantage of in desperate times? Is there a breed that has a shred of dignity? One that won’t fetch for less than half of minimum wage? Is there a breed that looks at this ad and lets out an incredulous Scooby-Doo-style interrogative yelp?

If you’re that dog, I’d suggest that this isn’t the job for you.

Stephen Quinn is the host of On the Coast on CBC Radio One, 690 AM and 88.1 FM in Vancouver.

Follow us on Twitter: @GlobeBC

The official amphetamine of the Third Reich.

• Let’s start the day by insulting some dead writers, one of the finer pastimes at our disposal. The famed editor Robert Gottlieb’s new memoir, Avid Reader, is chockablock with gossip about deceased luminaries, Alexandra Alter writes: “A highlight reel of Mr. Gottlieb’s juiciest revelations includes swipes at the Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul (a narcissist and ‘a snob’), the historian Barbara Tuchman (‘her sense of entitlement was sometimes hard to deal with’), William Gaddis (‘unrelentingly disgruntled’), John Updike (‘I was disturbed that he wouldn’t accept advances’) and Roald Dahl (an ‘erratic and churlish’ author who made ‘immoderate and provocative financial demands’ and anti-Semitic remarks).”

• While we’re at it, I’m always looking for new and novel ways to denigrate the Nazis. Norman Ohler, a German writer, has hit the mother lode—he discovered that they were all hopped up on amphetamines during the war. His book Blitzed tells a deliriously druggy tale of the Third Reich: “The Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers … At a company called Temmler in Berlin, Dr. Fritz Hauschild, its head chemist, inspired by the successful use of the American amphetamine Benzedrine at the 1936 Olympic Games, began trying to develop his own wonder drug—and a year later, he patented the first German methyl-amphetamine. Pervitin, as it was known, quickly became a sensation, used as a confidence booster and performance enhancer by everyone from secretaries to actors to train drivers … It even made its way into confectionery. ‘Hildebrand chocolates are always a delight,’ went the slogan. Women were recommended to eat two or three, after which they would be able to get through their housework in no time at all.” 

• But you don’t need amphetamines to keep your edge. You can just do what Eileen Myles does and sleep on the street from time to time. It really gets the blood flowing. She did it last week for a few nights and it sounds fun enough: “I’ve been compelled by the image of the begging monk, the hobo, the traveling anything for as long as I’ve been alive. I wanted to run away when I was a kid. I know we all did. But it’s still a very sweet part inside me. When I tour I love that I’m alone on a strange street, in a train station. So this retreat seemed a way to be out there—with a modicum of safety and to feel that free fall … When I was drinking, because my life was so unmanageable, I was afraid of not having a home. The fear of losing my apartment was visceral and haunting and persuasive. But of course, like when you lose something, there’s a moment when it’s great that it’s gone. You love the hole it left.”

• Gideon Lewis-Kraus on the central contradiction of travel photography: “We are not much closer to resolving the fundamental paradox of travel, which is just one version of the fundamental paradox of late-­capitalist life. On the one hand, we have been encouraged to believe that we are no longer the sum of our products (as we were when we were still an industrial economy) but the sum of our experiences. On the other, we lack the ritual structures that once served to organize, integrate and preserve the stream of these experiences, so they inevitably feel both scattershot and evanescent. We worry that photographs or journal entries keep us at a remove from life, but we also worry that without an inventory of these documents—a collection of snow globes for the mantel—we’ll disintegrate. Furthermore, that inventory has to fulfill two slightly different functions: It must define us as at once part of a tribe (‘people who go to Paris’) and independent of it (‘people who go to Paris and don’t photograph the Eiffel Tower’).”

• Admirers of short fiction tend to nod with vague approval at the name John O’Hara, but few go on to read him. Charles McGrath is hoping to change that—O’Hara was, he writes, peerless in the attention he paid to social class: “Because he was Irish and Catholic, O’Hara felt himself to be an outsider, and all his life, even after he had become wealthy and famous, he retained an outsider’s neediness and sullen defensiveness. His face was pressed against a glass that sometimes wasn’t there. But, the way outsiders do, he also became an uncanny observer of the world around him … spending marathon hours in speakeasies and working at a series of small-town newspapers. He became, among other things, one of the great listeners of American fiction, able to write dialogue that sounded the way people really talk, and he also learned the eavesdropper’s secret—how often people leave unsaid what is really on their minds.”

Something that many security researchers have feared has indeed come true. Threat actors have integrated a critical exploit taking advantage of a popular communication protocol used by Windows systems, crippling thousands of computers worldwide with ransomware.

Within hours of being leveraged, a flaw that had been recently patched by Microsoft has been used to distribute the WanaCrypt0r ransomware and wreak havoc worldwide.

In this blog post, we will describe the worm responsible for spreading this ransomware by looking at its capabilities and what has made this threat so successful.

Main functionality

WanaCrypt0r has been most effective—not only does the ransomware loop through every open RDP session on a system and run the ransomware as that user, but the initial component that gets dropped on systems appears to be a worm that contains and runs the ransomware, spreading itself using the ETERNALBLUE SMB vulnerability (MS17-010).

The WinMain of this executable first tries to connect to the website <a href="http://www.iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com" rel="nofollow">www.iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com</a>. It doesn’t actually download anything there, just tries to connect. If the connection succeeds, the binary exits.

This was probably some kind of kill switch or anti-sandbox technique. Whichever it is, it has backfired on the authors of the worm, as the domain has been sinkholed and the host in question now resolves to an IP address that hosts a website. Therefore, nothing will happen on any new systems that runs the executable. This only applies to the binary with the hash listed above; there may well be new versions released in the future. UPDATE: The second argument to InternetOpenA is 1 (INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT), so the worm will still work on any system that requires a proxy to access the Internet, which is the case on the majority of corporate networks. Thanks to Didier Stevens for spotting what was missed by most.

After this check passes, the first thing the worm does is check the number of arguments it was launched with. If it was run with less than two arguments passed, it installs a service called mssecsvc2.0 with display name Microsoft Security Center (2.0) Service (where the binary ran is itself with two arguments), starts that service, drops the ransomware binary located in the resources of the worm, and runs it.

If it was run with two arguments or more—in other words, if it was run as a service—execution eventually falls through to the worm function.

The initialization function called first calls WSAStartup() to initialize networking, then CryptAcquireContext() to initialize the crypto API so it can use a cryptographically-secure pseudo-random number generator. It then calls a function that initializes two buffers used for storing the worm payload DLLs, one x86 and one x64. It copies the payload DLLs from the .data section of the worm and then copies the entire worm binary after it.

The code of each payload DLL is very small, just getting the resource content (i.e. the worm binary), dropping to disk as C:\WINDOWS\mssecsvc.exe (this path is actually hardcoded) and executing it.

SMB vulnerability leveraged to spread ransomware worldwide

After initializing the functionality used by the worm, two threads are created. The first thread scans hosts on the LAN. The second thread gets created 128 times and scans hosts on the wider Internet.

The first thread (in charge of scanning LAN) uses GetAdaptersInfo() to get a list of IP ranges on the local network, then creates an array of every IP in those ranges to scan.

The LAN scanning is multithreaded itself, and there is code to prevent scanning more than 10 IP addresses on the LAN at a time.

The scanning thread tries to connect to port 445, and if so creates a new thread to try to exploit the system using MS17-010/EternalBlue. If the exploitation attempts take over 10 minutes, then the exploitation thread is stopped.

The threads that scan the Internet generate a random IP address, using either the OS’s cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator initialized earlier, or a weaker pseudo-random number generator if the CSPRNG failed to initialize. If connection to port 445 on that random IP address succeeds, the entire /24 range is scanned, and if port 445 is open, exploit attempts are made. This time, exploitation timeout for each IP happens not after 10 minutes but after one hour.

The exploitation thread tries several times to exploit, with two different sets of buffers used (perhaps one for x86 and one for x64). If it detects the presence of DOUBLEPULSAR after any exploitation attempt, it uses DOUBLEPULSAR to load the relevant payload DLL.

Protection

It is critical that you install all available OS updates to prevent getting exploited by the MS17-010 vulnerability. Any systems running a Windows version that did not receive a patch for this vulnerability should be removed from all networks. If your systems have been affected, DOUBLEPULSAR will have also been installed, so this will need to also be removed. A script is available that can remotely detect and remove the DOUBLEPULSAR backdoor. Consumer and business customers of Malwarebytes are protected from this ransomware by the premium version of Malwarebytes and Malwarebytes Endpoint Security, respectively.

MONTREAL -- After a long wait, two supervised injection sites will open in Montreal in a matter of weeks, Quebec's public health minister announced Friday.

Lucie Charlebois says she received word that two sites were given the necessary federal exemptions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act -- the final step to allow them to open their doors.

The long-awaited announcement comes as two international events on addiction are being held in the city.

Supervised injection sites provide a safe space for addicts and provide them with the necessary equipment -- sterile syringes, gauze pads and the like -- for safe injections.

The users themselves bring their drugs, the sites pride themselves on being anonymous and confidential, and the users are accompanied on site by nurses and community and psycho-social workers.

While such sites are met with a "not in my backyard" attitude, Charlebois said that reluctance has faded over time.

"There is no unanimity, but there is a great social consensus in Montreal," she said.

The Montreal sites are modelled after Vancouver-based Insite, which was the first city in North America to have a legal, supervised injection site beginning in 2003.

While critics say the sites encourage drug use, experience has shown they reduce the number of overdose deaths and transmission of hepatitis C and HIV.

They also allow stakeholders to make contact with addicts and direct them treatment programs.

In the Montreal-area, there are approximately 70 overdose deaths each year, of which between 15 and 20 involve injections.

Montreal's first two sites will be managed by established community organizations in downtown and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve districts. Two others are planned, including a mobile unit.

The province is devoting a budget of $12 million over three years for the effort.

Also Friday, Health Minister Jane Philpott said she has accepted some of the changes proposed by the Senate to Bill C-37, which aims to facilitate the opening of supervised injection sites, made more difficult under the previous Harper government.

But Philpott said she rejected the idea of setting up citizen committees for supervised injection sites.

Philpott contends such a requirement would stigmatize supervised injection sites and the people who use them, noting no other health service requires this type of citizen committee.

She approved one amendment calling for a minimum 45 day consultation before the opening of such sites.

The other amendment was to oblige the facilities to offer addicts a therapeutic product like methadone instead of the illegally purchased drug they're using.

Philpott indicated that not all sites are equipped to provide this type of treatment and left it to the discretion of each centre, removing the Senate's mandatory suggestion.

The House of Commons is currently studying the amendments proposed by the Senate.

Philpott expects the bill will be passed next week.

VICTORIA -- Elections BC has rejected four of the six requests for recounts in ridings where the outcome in the provincial election was determined by less than 600 votes.

Two requests were submitted for the riding of Vancouver-False Creek, and one for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Courtenay-Comox, Maple Ridge-Mission, and Richmond-Queensborough.

Recounts will go ahead for Vancouver-False Creek and Courtenay-Comox and are to take place between May 22 and 24, Elections BC said in a news release Saturday.

Recount requests are accepted if the difference between the top two candidates is 100 votes or less, or if there were errors with accepting votes, rejecting ballots or discrepancies between the ballot count and number of votes for a candidate.

Elections BC said not all requests met the 100 vote or less criteria or provided enough evidence that ballots were improperly accepted or recorded.

For Vancouver-False Creek, Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan was elected by 560 votes ahead of New Democrat Morgane Oger.

Although Oger's request for a recount was denied, Elections BC said it accepted a request from BC Citizens First Party candidate Phillip James Ryan because of evidence of discrepancies in counting.

An advanced voting ballot account recorded 403 votes for one candidate but the tally sheet and parcel envelope containing ballots for that candidate lists 399.

The Courtenay-Comox recount was accepted because the difference between the top two candidates was a mere nine votes.

Liberal candidate Jim Benninger, who lost the riding to New Democrat Ronna-Rae Leonard, submitted the request.

Aman Singh, NDP candidate in Richmond-Queensborough, requested a recount after losing the riding to Liberal candidate Jas Johal by 263 votes but was denied.

NDP incumbent Jodie Wickens who lost the Coquitlam-Burke Mountain riding to Liberal candidate Joan Isaacs by 268 votes was also denied a recount.

Any changes discovered through a recount could have a significant impact on the results of the election.

Christy Clark's Liberals are one seat shy of a majority government with 43 seats, while John Horgan's New Democrats have 41 and Andrew Weaver's Greens hold the balance of power with three.

The final count, which will include 176,000 absentee ballots, could also swing the results.

Applicants can still request a judicial recount up to six days after the final count is released on May 24.

According to officials, fentanyl, a powerful and highly addictive synthetic opioid that has been responsible for hundreds of overdose deaths in Canada, is increasingly making its way into popular party drugs like cocaine and MDMA.

“I’m amazed to see more MDMA (and) ecstasy (testing) positive for fentanyl,” Alain Vincent, a pharmacist at STS Pain Pharmacy in downtown Victoria, B.C., told CTV News Vancouver Island.

The pharmacy, which helps drug users test their supplies for the presence of fentanyl, is now more surprised when party drugs test negative for the opioid.

Photos

Fentanyl pills are shown in an undated police handout photo. (Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams/The Canadian Press)

“We are very worried that this crisis is far from over,” Dr. Richard Stanwick, chief medical health officer of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, told CTV News. “It continues and it’s taxing resources.”

On Vancouver Island alone, from January until the end of April, emergency rooms saw 689 visits related to opioid overdoses. That’s roughly 39 emergency room visits per week -- 1.4 times higher than a year ago, when the overdose crisis was declared a medical emergency.

“At the end of the day, we are still seeing rates that are higher than last year,” Stanwick said. “This could be because everything is now contaminated with fentanyl. And so you may be thinking you are taking cocaine or heroin, and the odds are that it may also contain fentanyl, and as a consequence, even with a stimulant, you may find yourself basically collapsing with a fentanyl overdose.”

But hope, which has been hard to come by in the opioid crisis, may be on the horizon. The University of Victoria is currently working with STS Pain Pharmacy to develop a relatively inexpensive handheld device that will not just screen party drugs for the presence of fentanyl, but will also test how much of the opioid has been added. Still, a huge concern for healthcare workers is casual drug users who may try to hide their substance use, meaning that many might not take the step of testing their supplies for fentanyl before using them.

“There’s much more (people) who use drugs than you think,” Vincent said. “And they’re not drug addicts.”

With a report from CTV Vancouver Island’s Chandler Grieve