The B.C. Coroners Service has released updated reports of illicit drug toxicity deaths and fentanyl-detected drug deaths to the end of April.
The reports show an average of 3.2 illicit drug toxicity deaths per day in the first four months of this year. Some of the key findings included 117 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in April. That’s roughly a 4 per cent increase over the number of deaths in March and an increase of 39 per cent compared to the number of deaths in April of last year.
“We remain in a public health emergency, with more than three British Columbians dying each day from illicit drug toxicity deaths,” said Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner.”
In total, there are 382 illicit drug deaths to date in 2020 in B.C. The Northern Health Authority experiences the highest rate of drug related deaths seeing 28 deaths per 100,000 individuals. In 2020, 71 per cent of those dying were aged 19 to 49, and males accounted for 79 per cent of deaths in this year to date, both increases from 2019.
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