B.C. overdose deaths soar 88% in first six months of year
Don’t use alone, chief coroner urges, as 2017 death toll in opioid crisis hits 780
Fewer people died of drug overdoses in June than in earlier months of this year, but the death rate continues to be far higher than last year.
According to the B.C. Coroners Service, 780 deaths so far this year can be attributed to overdosing on illicit drugs.
That’s up 88 per cent from the same period a year ago, when there were 414 deaths. In total, there were 978 overdoses deaths in B.C. last year.
The scale of the crisis becomes clearer in statistics reported by the city of Vancouver, which suggest the number of overdoses that end in death are a drop in the bucket when counting total overdoses.
For example, in Vancouver, there were two overdose deaths reported in the week of July 24.
Both were outside of the Downtown Eastside, “showing that the impacts of overdose crisis are being experienced across Vancouver,” said a news release from city officials.
But that same week, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services reported a total of 172 calls to overdoses.
“Organizations working on the front lines in the Downtown Eastside are having an impact on reducing the number of deaths due to overdoses, but the work is far from done,” city officials said in the release, something made clear by the province stats.
B.C.’s chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, called the stark rise in deaths “tragic.”
“The drug supply is unsafe and anyone using illicit drugs is at high risk for overdose,” she said in a statement.
Cheap but dangerous synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are often mixed with drugs before they are sold on the streets.
The powerful opioid fentanyl has been suspected in many of the deaths, and the coroners’ service confirms that from January to May this year the drug was detected in 78 per cent of the overdose deaths.
“I urge anyone using drugs, whether casually or regularly, not to use alone,” Lapointe said. “Many deaths our coroners attend are in response to people who overdose with no one available to provide or summon critical and immediate medical assistance.”
Nine in 10 deaths occur “inside,” the coroners service said, with half in private residences.
There were no deaths reported at supervised consumption or overdose prevention sites.
Two thirds of the deaths this year have been in and around Metro Vancouver, with 258 deaths in the Fraser Health region and 249 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
More than 60 per cent of the province’s total population (roughly 2.8 million people) live in the areas covered by the two health authorities.
People between 30 and 59 represent three-quarters of all drug deaths. Four in five were male.
The last month with complete data was June, when 111 deaths were connected to drug overdoses. That’s an increase of 61 per cent over June 2016.
And from the beginning of the year until the end of May, the coroners service found 78 per cent of deaths related to overdoses — 525 of 669 — showed at least traces of fentanyl.
On Thursday, provincial officials noted people of Indigenous descent are three times more likely than people of non-First Nations heritage to die of an overdose.
According to Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical officer Patricia Daly, that number rises to 12 times higher in the city of Vancouver.
Vancouver city council has approved more than $400,000 in funding for groups working with Vancouver’s Indigenous population and the overdose crisis, to promote access to healing and wellness services.
“Indigenous people are overrepresented in the opioid overdoes and deaths. The funding from the City of Vancouver is critical, as front line agencies are being overwhelmed and most are hosting memorials weekly,” Kevin Barlow, CEO of the Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council, said in a statement.
“In taking steps to lessen the effects of this crisis on Vancouver’s Indigenous community, the Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council has formed an urban Indigenous opioid task force to share information and target efforts from a centralized viewpoint.”
Health officials remind drug users and those in their company “that heavy snoring and the inability to be awakened are signs of the respiratory distress caused by an overdose; 911 should be called immediately if these symptoms are present.”
The also point out that a change in federal law “provides immunity from simple possession charges for those who call 911.”
Health Canada is working to approve several supervised consumption sites across the country.
On Thursday Health Canada authorized the opening of Victoria’s first such facility where drug users can inject illicit substances and get immediate help if they overdose.