Overdose spiral claims 14 in Victoria

B.C. sees 75% increase in drug-death toll, largely due to deadly effects of fentanyl

British Columbians continue to die from accidental illicit drug overdoses at an alarming rate, largely due to the deadly effects of fentanyl.

There were 308 overdose deaths in the province in the first four months of this year compared with 175 for the same period last year, a 75 per cent increase, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

“If the trend continues, we’ll be looking at more than 700 deaths this year,” coroner Barb McLintock said.

“It’s a trend we want to see stopped as soon as we can.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 per cent more powerful than heroin. It was detected in 56 per cent of illicit overdose deaths in the first four months of 2016. That has risen steadily from five per cent in 2012, 15 per cent in 2013, 25 per cent in 2014 and 31 per cent in 2015.

Fentanyl was detected either on its own or in combination with heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, McLintock said. “It appears that a high proportion of these deaths involve regular drug users,” she said. “These are not occasional or novice users. We’re not getting that any more.”

The spike in fatalities prompted B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, to declare a public health emergency in April. This allows officials to collect and share real-time data on all overdoses, one of the key recommendations in a recent report by the B.C. Drug Overdose and Alert Partnership, which is led by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

Knowing more about overdoses more quickly will allow health officials to provide a better response, Kendall said at the time.

In the Island region, which includes Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Powell River, there were 38 deaths from illicit drug overdoses in the first four months, compared with 22 last year. There were 14 deaths in Victoria, 12 in Nanaimo, four in Saanich and three in Powell River.

“If you look at Victoria and Nanaimo, we’re getting a high proportion increase of drug-overdose deaths on the Island and in the Interior, although the raw numbers are still higher on the Lower Mainland,” McLintock said.

There was an average of 61 drug overdose deaths per month in the province from January to May this year, compared with 40 per month in 2015.

The largest number of drugoverdose deaths in a single month was in January 2016, when more than 77 people died from illicit overdoses.