More than 2,000 people killed by toxic drugs in B.C. in first 10 months of year: Coroner

For the third straight year, the BC Coroners Service says at least 2,039 people have been killed in a year by the unregulated toxic drug supply, with more than two months to go in 2023’s reporting period.

The service says 189 people were killed in October, with the BCCS sharing in a release Thursday, that it was the 37th consecutive month where at least 150 people were killed by toxic drugs.

“The provincewide death rate for the year is 45 per 100,000 residents, the highest such number ever recorded,” the BCCS said.

“Toxicological testing confirms that the unregulated drug supply in the province remains dangerous and volatile. Illicit fentanyl and its analogues are present in 85% of expedited test results, often in combination with other opioids and/or stimulants, including cocaine and methamphetamine,” the Coroners Service explained.

The Coroners Service notes the safer-supply medication — hydromorphone — was found in toxicology in only four per cent of deaths reported.

“There is no indication that prescribed safer supply is contributing to unregulated drug deaths,” the BCCS said.

The October figures come after the BC Coroners Service earlier this month urged the province to “immediately pursue” expanded access to safer supply as a new report on toxic drug deaths found many of them have been “largely preventable.”

Shortly after this call, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside made it clear that the province will not pursue a non-prescription approach to safer supply — the key recommendation from the BC Coroners Service toxic drug death review panel.

“Unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in British Columbia for people aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents, and natural disease combined. The lives of at least 13,317 British Columbians have been lost to unregulated drugs since the public-health emergency was first declared in April 2016,” the Coroners Service said Thursday.

The BCCS notes that October 2023 recorded a nine per cent decrease from the number of deaths in October 2022, and a seven per cent decrease since September 2023.

In a statement, Whiteside said Thursday that the government’s hearts are with the families and friends of those killed by the poisoned drug supply.

“Each of these lives was an integral part of the fabric of our province and our communities, and their absence leaves a void that cannot be filled,” she said.