Around 1,800 British Columbians died due to toxic street drugs last year, the first time the number has dipped below 2,000 in five years. (Image Credit: Dreamstime)

By Jordan Davidson

downward trend

Fewer Nanaimo deaths due to toxic street drugs last year

Feb 20, 2026 | 2:16 PM

NANAIMO — Deaths caused by illicit street drugs decreased 21 per cent province-wide, with Vancouver Island following the favourable trend.

In total, 71 people lost their lives to toxic drugs in Nanaimo in 2025, well below the grim records set in 2023 of 114 local fatalities, according to the latest report from the BC Coroners Service (BCCS).

In 2024, 94 people died in Nanaimo from toxic drugs, according to the BCCS.

The Oceanside area counted 16 deaths related to toxic drugs last year.

Across the entire Island Health district, 343 people died last year, 65 from the north, 150 from the central Island, and 128 deaths in the south.

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This is below the highest number of deaths in 2023, when 491 people died.

More than 1,800 people died in British Columbia last year from illicit drugs, and while the coroner’s service says it still represents a “profound loss of life,” it’s a 21 per cent decrease from the year before and almost 30 per cent reduced from the peak of the ongoing public health crisis in 2023.

The service said in a statement that it’s also the first time since 2020 that annual deaths from toxic drugs in the province have been under 2,000.

The figures were released on Thursday, Feb. 19, shortly after Health Minister Josie Osborne announced expanded access to nasal naloxone, which temporarily reverses an overdose.

The coroner’s office says 77 per cent of the 1,826 people who died last year were male, 69 per cent were between the ages of 30 and 59, and about half of the deaths occurred indoors.

Fentanyl was detected in 69 per cent of toxic drug deaths last year, but that figure is trending downward with other drugs also being found, including fluorofentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.

By occupation, trades, transport, and equipment operators continued having the highest death rates at over 20 cent, followed by sales and services at 10 per cent.

Illicit drug use has claimed more than 16,000 people since April 2016, when the emergency was declared.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

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