“That’s an increase of nearly 75 per cent and it’s worth noting that last year’s numbers were distressingly high”, says Barb McLintock of the B.C. Coroners Service.
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Much of this is connected to the rise of fentanyl across North America, including in B.C.
The BC Coroners Service says there continues to be a noticeable spike in the number of drug-related deaths so far this year.
Public health officials in B.C. declared the drug deaths a public health emergency in April after 200 drug fatalities were recorded.
In the first four months of the year, there have been six fatal fentanyl-related overdoses in Fort St. John, Pink Mountain and Wonowon – a sharp increase from the two deaths reported in all of 2015.
Preliminary data suggests that the proportion of illicit drug overdose deaths in which fentanyl was detected (alone or in combination with other drugs) increased to approximately 56 per cent in the first four months of 2016.
The numbers show a slight dip in May, with with 42 deaths – about the same as May 2014. John area has the most deaths in 2016 in the Northern Region so far this year from January to May. This is the largest number of deaths in a single month for the examined period.
The deaths include all those who died of overdoses from all drugs and alcohol, but it was the jumps in heroin and fentanyl related deaths that were the most striking, according to the data from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“These aren’t people in the Downtown Eastside”, Lake told the Canadian Homebuilders in a speech on health care challenges. “People are dying of a lot of different illicit drugs”. About 20 percent of people who take illicit drugs have addiction issues.
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Health minister Terry Lake is hopeful the numbers of overdosed have leveled off he admits more help like supervised injection sites are needed. “And now we’ve got something called W18, which is even more powerful”.
