Almost 600 toxic drug deaths in B.C. so far this year, advocates say government funding hasn’t helped

The B.C. Coroners Service says unregulated drugs killed almost 600 people across the province in the first three months of 2023, according to preliminary numbers released Tuesday.

The service says 2022 was the deadliest year on record, with 2,314 people dying from drug poisoning.

The BC Emergency Health Service (BCEHS) says paramedics have responded to almost 200,000 overdose events within that time, with more than half of those taking place on the Lower Mainland.

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Guy Felicella with the BC Centre on Substance (BCCDC) use says most people in the province are dying in their own homes.

“Yeah, private residence … this is not just a Downtown Eastside issue, this is a whole province, whole community issue,” he said.

Leslie McBain works with the BCCDC as a family engagement lead, while also working with Moms Stop the Harm, and she believes B.C. isn’t focusing resources on the right things.

“(They) talk and talk about treatment and recovery and all the beds they are going to build and that is not going to stop the death today, tomorrow, next year. It’s going to take them years to build,” she said.

McBain says she’d like the see the government focus on a safer regulated drug supply for users in the province.

“It’s going to be the same, why would it be different if we have not changed anything in terms of what kind of drugs people are being forced to use?”

Over half of the deaths caused by toxic drugs were reported to the coroner’s service in February and March, amounting to an average of at least six deaths per day.

In a statement, B.C.’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside says the provincial government is “urgently working to expand supports and programs.”

“That’s why we are making $1 billion in targeted investments through Budget 2023 to build a system of mental health and addictions care that didn’t exist prior to 2017,” she said.

In March’s Budget 2023 presentation, the province announced it had put aside $586 million specifically for treatment and recovery as part of $1 billion in overall mental health funding.

Read more:

• B.C. government gives details on mental health and addictions support funding

Felicella adds, while he supports the expansion of addiction care, he wonders why government drug policy continues to focus on that, and ignores people who aren’t addicted and still die from drugs.

“It’s a good question,” he said. “There’s a lot of people out there who don’t struggle with an addiction that use substances intermittently.”

The death rate from unregulated drugs is the highest in Northern B.C.’s health region, where relatively few people are using safe injection sites according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.

CityNews asked Felicella what kind of policy or action would help the situation and lower numbers related to toxic drug deaths.

“You got to remove people from the illicit drug supply, you got to give people access to safer substances.”

“You got to support people who are struggling with an addiction to access other services,” he explained.

With files from Liza Yuzda