Drug toxicity is killing more people in the Nanaimo region with the city and central Island on pace to set new records for related fatalities. (Pikist)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

drug toxicity

Nanaimo region remains on pace for record number of drug toxicity deaths

Aug 16, 2022 | 5:40 PM

NANAIMO — Rates of death related to drug toxicity have dropped across much of B.C., but remain on record pace locally.

A total of 146 people lost their lives in B.C. in June, down 17 per cent from the same month last year and 26 per cent from May 2022. Despite the drop, the province remains on track to eclipse records set last year.

The high number of deaths linked to drug toxicity remained in Nanaimo and across the central Vancouver Island region.

Thirty-three people have died in the city through the first six months of 2022, pacing Nanaimo ahead of the record set in 2017 of 56 lives lost.

The 78 recorded fatalities in the Central Vancouver Island region, encompassing communities across the width of Island from the Malahat to Bowser is also pacing ahead of the record 123 deaths last year.

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“Tragically, in the seventh year of this public heath emergency, as we are experiencing increasing numbers of deaths in July, our province has now lost more than 10,000 lives to illicit drugs since April 2016,” Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s chief coroner said in a statement.

“Some lived ordinary lives, while others faced enormous challenges. All of them fell prey to the lethal supply of illicit drugs that is omnipresent.”

Of the deaths province wide between January and June this year, 73 per cent were aged between 30 and 59, with 78 per cent being male.

Etizolam, an analogue of benzodiazepine, was found in 39 per cent of all toxic drug-related fatalities over the last two years. The drug is a sedative and its effects cannot be reversed by naloxone.

In June, Ottawa approved a three-year exception to federal drug laws, and from next year, B.C. will become the first province where people won’t be arrested or charged for possessing up to 2.5 grams of certain illicit drugs.

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