Drug toxicity death rates continue to sit at or above record number for B.C., including the Greater Nanaimo region. (Dreamstime)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

fatal start

Nanaimo leads Vancouver Island in toxic drug deaths in January

Mar 7, 2023 | 12:46 PM

NANAIMO — Tainted drugs continue to have a significant impact on the Harbour City.

The Greater Nanaimo area recorded 12 fatalities linked to toxic drugs in January, according to new data from the BC Coroners Service. The total outpaced Victoria with 11 related deaths.

Central Vancouver Island, encompassing communities the width of Vancouver Island from the Malahat to north of Qualicum Beach, recorded 18 deaths compared to 11 in the south and 10 in the north.

“We are nearing the seventh anniversary of the declaration of the public-health emergency into substance-related harms, and the drug-poisoning crisis continues to cost lives and communities at an unprecedented rate,’ Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner, said.

Throughout all of 2022, the central Island recorded more than 18 fatalities monthly just once, in May with 21 people dying.

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Provincially, 211 people died in January alone from drug toxicity. It marked the eighth time in the last 16 months more than 200 people had lost their lives for reasons directly linked to the ongoing drug toxicity crisis.

A majority of all fatalities continue to be working aged men, with 69 per cent being between the ages of 30 and 59.

A record 74 people died in Nanaimo from toxic drugs last year, while province-wide the ongoing crisis claimed nearly 2,300 lives last year, the second most recorded annually behind a record-setting year in 2021.

In her report, Lapointe called recent increases in funding to treatment and recovery options “tremendously encouraging.”

“Members of coroners’ inquests and death review panels have consistently recommended a continuum of care that includes evidence-based treatment options, access to safer supply, and other essential harm-reduction tools to end this crisis.”

In Nanaimo, an upgraded supervised consumption site opened in December 2022, but won’t be at full capacity until late 2023.

However, a provincially-funded, harm reduction site operated by the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU) closed its Nicol St. location at the end of February after copious neighbour complaints.

Its future remains unclear.

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