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By Liam Verster

Overdose Death Report

Nine drug deaths recorded in Vernon in first quarter of 2025

May 15, 2025 | 11:22 AM

There were nine overdose deaths in Vernon in the first three months of 2025.

The B.C. Coroners Service reported five deaths in Vernon in March, and another two in February. The report came on May 15 and built on the two deaths recorded in January 2025.

In Kelowna, there were seven suspected drug deaths in March, eight in February, and 10 in January, bringing the city’s quarterly total to 25 overdose deaths.

The trend put Vernon on track to record 37 deaths in 2025, and Kelowna to see 100 lives lost to drugs. Comparatively, there were 49 deaths in Vernon in 2024 and 57 in 2023, while Kelowna recorded 87 and 104 deaths in 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The local totals were part of the 428 deaths that had been recorded across B.C. in the first three months of 2025. That figure included 132 deaths in February and 143 in March.

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“In the first three months of 2025, deaths among those between the ages of 30 and 59 accounted for 67 per cent of drug-toxicity deaths in the province, and 76 per cent were male,” the Coroners Service said in a release.

“March marks the sixth consecutive month in which the number of deaths reported to the BC Coroners Service attributed to unregulated drug toxicity was below 160.”

The Coroners Service stated 79 per cent of drug deaths in 2025 occurred inside, including 45 per cent in private residences, and 34 per cent in other residences such a social and supportive housing, shelters, and hotels.

It was also noted that fentanyl was detected in 70 per cent of fatal overdoses. Methamphetamine was detected in 50 per cent of overdose deaths, flurofentanyl in 47 per cent of cases, cocaine in 46 per cent of deaths, bromazolam in 37 per cent, desalkylgidazepam in 34 per cent, and hydromorphone in three per cent of drug deaths.