Fifty one people in Nanaimo died in the first nine months of 2022 due to toxic drugs. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

grim numbers

Toxic drug deaths trend toward new provincial record, fatalities jump in Nanaimo

Nov 7, 2022 | 3:23 PM

NANAIMO — A deadly year during the ever-deepening tainted drug crisis across British Columbia shows no sign of slowing down.

New BC Coroners Service (BCCS) data showed 1,644 people died province-wide due to toxic drugs in the first nine months of this year, which is slightly ahead of last year’s record-setting pace.

In Nanaimo, 51 people died due to toxic drugs between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, which ties the total for all of 2021.

Nanaimo is on pace to break the highest number of deaths due to toxic drugs in a single year which was set in 2017 when 56 deaths were reported by the coroners service.

In Nanaimo, 18 people died from tainted drugs during this past July, August and September.

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According to the BCCS, a record-setting pace of 114 people died from toxic drugs in the first nine months of the year in the vast central Vancouver Island region, stretching from the Malahat to Bowser and westward.

Six fatalities during the same time period were reported in the Oceanside region.

The BCCS flagged the Cowichan Valley as an area with a disproportionately high number of toxic drug deaths this year.

A statement from chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said illicit drugs are killing both those who use occasionally and the substance-dependent.

“Individuals who have been abstinent for a period of time or those who normally use stimulants are at increased risk. Their opioid tolerance is low and the prevalence of fentanyl in the illicit supply is high.”

Fentanyl was detected in 81 per cent of province-wide drug toxicity deaths in the first eight months of the year, down by five per cent compared to last year during the same time.

In September 171 British Columbians died from toxic drugs, up eight per cent compared to year-over-year figures.

About two-thirds of British Columbians killed by toxic drugs so far this year were between the ages of 30 and 59, and 79 per cent of them were male.

The coroner service reported at least 10,505 British Columbians have died since the public-health emergency into overdose deaths was declared in April 2016.

An overdose bulletin from Island Health last week warned of toxic drugs proliferating in the Nanaimo area, representing the fifth such warning so far this year.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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