Central Vancouver Island recorded 120 fatalities linked to toxic drug use in 2021. It's the second highest tally on record. (Dreamstime)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

LIVES LOST

Central Island, B.C. set new records for drug toxicity deaths

Feb 9, 2022 | 10:32 AM

NANAIMO — More people are dying than ever before in B.C.’s ongoing battle against a toxic drug supply.

Central Vancouver Island reported 120 fatalities linked to the toxic drug crisis throughout 2021, eclipsing the previous high mark of 101 set the year prior.

Forty-nine of the deaths were in Nanaimo alone, the second-highest year on record only behind the 56 fatalities in 2017.

“I know that these numbers and these findings fall very hard for those with lived and living experience and their friends and families,” Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s chief coroner said on Wednesday, Feb. 9. “All of those across the province who have suffered the loss of a family member, friend or colleague due to drug toxicity, I am so sorry for your loss.”

The central Vancouver Island region of Island Health encompasses areas north of the Malahat and south of the Comox Valley across the entire width of the Island.

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It also includes more remote communities like Gabriola Island.

November was the deadliest month across the region with 16 recorded fatalities while the central Island also set a new record for the rate of fatalities per 100,000 people, with 40.1.

“The status quo costs us millions in policing, emergency response, short and long-term healthcare and incarceration,” Lapointe added. “It creates social mayhem in our communities, it devastates lives.”

The trends continued province-wide as well with a record 2,224 fatalities linked to the crisis. It’s a 26 per cent increase over the previous record set in 2020 of 1,767 lives lost.

It equals six people per day losing their life to toxic drugs, with the rate closer to seven in November and December.

Provincially, of those lives lost, 71 per cent were aged 30 to 59. Around 78 per cent of those people were men.

An overwhelming majority, 83 per cent, of toxic drug deaths occurred inside, with just over half in a private residence.

Fentanyl continues to be the driving factor behind drug toxicity deaths, found in 83 per cent of all cases. It’s a slight decrease from 85 per cent in 2020.

The additive is also becoming more potent and showing up in greater quantities.

Through the last three months of 2021, an average of 26 per cent of drug toxicity deaths featured fentanyl concentrations of 50 micrograms per litre, up from between eight and 16 per cent for the nearly three years prior.

The apparent dip in overall fentanyl-related deaths was more than offset by carfentanil which was detected in 187 fatalities last year, over double the 66 deaths in 2020.

Lapointe said cartentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.

The province is also tracking a spike in drug toxicity deaths related to benzodiazepine , from around 15 per cent in July 2020 to 50 per cent in December 2021.

“This is of particular concern as benzodiazepines significantly impair the life saving effects of Naloxone, used to treat opioid poisonings.”

Lapointe added the province has petitioned the federal government for an exemption to the controlled drugs and substances act, which would effectively decriminalize opioids for personal use.

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