B.C. overdose deaths drop, but more than 100 still dying each month

VANCOUVER — The latest overdose statistics in British Columbia show a dip in the number of suspected illicit drug deaths in June compared with the same month a year earlier, but the death toll remains high.

More than 100 British Columbians are dying of overdoses each month, or more than three people every day, the BC Coroners Service said Thursday.

There were 105 illicit drug overdose deaths in June, a drop from 123 in the same month last year. About 80 per cent of the fatalities are male and 71 per cent are between the ages of 30 and 59 years old.

“That’s unacceptably high. It’s absolutely a public health crisis and it needs to be met with appropriate policy responses,” said Dr. Ryan McNeil, a research scientist with the BC Centre on Substance Use and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s department of medicine.

The overdose crisis in B.C. has led to a number of new programs aimed at reducing deaths.

McNeil said such programs are just one part of the puzzle in stemming the overdose crisis.

“This is a crisis being driven by fentanyl and fentanyl-adulterated drugs, and there’s an urgent need to ensure that people have access to a safer drug supply,” he said.

Creating a safer supply could take many forms, from decriminalization of drugs to the scaling-up of prescription heroin and injectable opioid-assisted therapies, he said.