B.C. reported 174 suspected illicit toxic drug deaths in February

Apr 12, 2022 | 12:03 PM

The B.C. Coroners Service is reporting 174 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths during February of 2022.

That figure was similar to the 174 deaths in February of 2021, but was down 16 per cent from the 208 deaths recorded in January 2022.

Of the 382 drug deaths throughout B.C. so far this year, 66 have been in the Interior. That figure comes from 36 fatalities in January then 30 in February.

Those figures reflects a toxic drug death rate of 47.8 per 100,000 people in the Interior.

So far in 2022, 30 of the Interior deaths have taken place in the Okanagan area, which comes from 13 deaths in January and 17 in February.

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The B.C. Coroners Service did not include figures for Vernon, but did show that there have been 13 deaths in Kelowna, eight in Penticton, and 16 in Kamloops so far this year.

The Coroners Service stated that 74 per cent of British Columbians dying due to toxic drugs were between the ages of 30 and 59, and 78 per cent were male.

It was noted that 76 per cent of all illicit toxic drug deaths this year have involved fentanyl or its analogues, down from the 85 per cent recorded in all of 2021.

From November 2021 through February 2022, approximately 21 per cent of cases had extreme fentanyl concentrations, up from the 13 per cent from April 2020 to October 2021.

In the Interior, 20 per cent of illicit of the deaths had extreme fentanyl concentrations.

The report also stated that 56.3 per cent of 2022’s illicit toxic drug deaths in B.C. occurred in private residences, though that rate was much higher for the Interior at 61.3 per cent.

Provincially, 24.6 per cent of overdose deaths occurred at other residences, and 13 per cent occurred outside.

In the Interior, 22.5 per cent of illicit drug deaths occurred at other residences and 11.2 per cent were outside.

by Liam Verster

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