A slight decrease in toxic drug deaths happened this past month.
According to the BC Coroners Service, at least 192 people died in July this year, a 15 per cent decrease from the same month last year (226).
Despite the decrease, Chief Coroner Dr. Jatinder Baidwan said the drug market remains volatile and continues to claim too many lives.
“Unregulated toxic drugs continue to cause more loss of life in British Columbia than homicides, motor-vehicle incidents, suicides and natural disease combined, tragically equating to about 6.2 people losing their lives each day.”
The rate of death has been 41 per 100,000 residents so far this year, a slight decrease from 2021 (43.9), 2022 (44.5), and 2023 (46.6).
Vancouver (296), Surrey (130), and Greater Victoria (101) has had the most lives lost to toxic drugs in 2024.
Northern (75.7 per 100,000) and Vancouver Island (53.4 per 100,000) health regions have the highest death rate for the year so far.
Eighty per cent of deaths in the past month were males, while female deaths in 2024 (22 per 100,000) have nearly doubled since 2020 (13 per 100,000).
Fentanyl is the main cause of deaths for the month, being found in nine out of every 10 unregulated deaths.
1,365 lives have been lost in the first seven months of the year.
