Article content Paramedic specialist Brian Twaites worked in ambulance dispatch on New Year’s Eve, monitoring 911 calls from across the province. The pandemic had kept many people home, so there wasn’t the usual chaos in bars or on the streets, but there was an alarming increase in another type of plea for help. B.C. residents reported a suspected drug overdose 110 times on Dec. 31. That day had the eighth-highest number of 911 overdose calls in 2020, a year that also smashed records for drug toxicity deaths. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser, or A grim year by the numbers: 2020's busiest days for overdoses, and what needs to change in 2021 Back to video