BC records deadliest January on record for illicit drug deaths
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BC records deadliest January on record for illicit drug deaths
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BC Chief Coroner believes decriminalization is a key to curbing illicit drug crisis
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It’s a grim milestone BC Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe didn’t want to reach again.
The provincial coroner’s service reported 1,716 deaths in 2020, which is a new record surpassing the previous high of 1,549 set in 2018.
Much of the impact was felt in our region as Northern Health tallied 132 illicit drug deaths, skyrocketing past the 2019 mark of 67.
When dissecting the past few years (2018-2020), PG saw 142 overdose deaths, trailing only Kamloops (144) and Vancouver (1050).
To make matters worse, Northern Health’s drug toxicity death rate of 46 per 100,000 thousand people was the worst among all five health authorities in BC – seven-points higher than Vancouver Coastal which came in second at 39.
Northern Health nearly doubles fentanyl-detected deaths this year compared to 2019 Photo of BC Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe: BC Gov Flickr
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November was another tragic month in regards to the illicit drug crisis in BC with an average of over five deaths per day.
According to the BC Coroners Service, 153 suspected drug toxicity deaths occurred last month, that’s an 89% increase when compared to the same month last year (81), and a 7% decrease over the number of deaths from October of this year(164).
77% of deaths in November saw some level of fentanyl detected.
In addition, Northern Health has recorded 93 fentanyl-detected deaths so far this year, almost doubling last year’s mark of 53.