Illicit drug overdose deaths spike in Vernon and Kelowna

Feb 11, 2021 | 12:21 PM

The B.C. Coroners Service says 2020 was B.C.’s worst year yet in terms of the number of lives lost due to the effects of toxic drugs.

There were 1,716 deaths due to illicit drugs in the province, a 74 per cent increase over the numbers in 2019 (984).

It equates to more than four deaths per day, and officials say the toxic drug supply in B.C. has claimed more lives than motor-vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides and prescription-drug related deaths combined.

Vernon recorded 26 illicit drug overdose deaths last year, almost double the 14 in 2019. It was an all-time high in the city with 24 fatal incidents in both 2017 and 2018.

Kelowna had 61 deaths in 2020, compared to 31 the year before, with 73 the record in 2017.

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Kamloops recorded 60 deaths, up from the 25 in 2019.

The numbers have officials with the coroners service calling for the decriminalization of more drugs.

“The impacts of COVID-19 highlighted the immensely precarious situation of those experiencing problematic substance use in our province,” Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner, said. “Decades of criminalization, an increasingly toxic illicit drug market and the lack of timely access to evidence-based treatment and recovery services have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives in B.C. It’s clear that urgent change is needed to prevent future deaths and the resulting grief and loss so many families and communities have experienced across our province.”

Here are some key preliminary findings of the drug death reports:

There were 152 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in December 2020. This is a 130 per cent increase over the number of deaths in December 2019 (66) and a four per cent decrease from the deaths in November 2020 (158).
In 2020, 69 per cent of those dying were aged 30 to 59, and males accounted for 81 per cent of deaths.
The communities that experienced the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2020 were Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria.
Fentanyl or its analogues continued to be detected in more than 80 per cent of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2020. Cocaine and methamphetamine were the next most commonly detected drugs.

by Pete McIntyre

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