VICTORIA — The BC Coroners Service says a focus on evidence-based efforts is needed to save lives in the overdose crisis.
That’s in response to new overdose fatality numbers being release Thursday morning, Feb. 7.
There were 48 overdose deaths in Kamloops in 2018, compared to 38 the year prior.
In a news release, the coroners service says the number of fatal drug overdoses in the province plateaued in 2018, despite significant efforts from groups around the province to prevent deaths.
Last year there were 1,489 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths, slightly more than the total of overdose deaths in the year prior. The number of 2018 deaths will likely rise as investigations conclude.
“Families and communities across the province are losing friends, neighbours and loved ones to illicit overdoses at an alarming rate. The illicit drug supply is unpredictable and unmanageable, and fentanyl is now implicated in 86 (per cent) of overdose deaths,” said Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner. “The almost 1,500 deaths in B.C. in 2018 due to illicit drug overdoses far outweigh the numbers of people dying from motor vehicle incidents, homicides and suicides combined. Innovative and evidence-based approaches are necessary if we want to effect meaningful change and stop the dying. We need to be prepared to do things differently to save lives.”
A trend highlighted in the report is that middle-aged men are overrepresented with 80 per cent of suspected overdose deaths involving men, and 71 per cent involving people aged 30 to 59. More than 85 per cent of overdoses continue to occur indoors. More people die on the days immediately following the issuance of income assistance payments than all other days in the year.
“As this emergency continues, we need options to provide people at risk of overdose with low-barrier access to a regulated supply of opioids, and we need to connect people who use drugs with the supports they need rather than sending them to the criminal justice system,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer. “If we’re going to turn the corner on this complex crisis, we need to find the ways to provide safer alternatives to the unregulated and highly toxic drug supply and to end the stigma associated with criminalization of people who use drugs.”
The executive director of the BC Centre on Substance Use, Dr. Evan Wood, says there are a number of upstream solutions, including improved addiction training to support prevention and treatment. He also says policy changes are needed to end prohibition.
“This latest report confirms what those on the front line already know all too well: this crisis is not slowing down,” said Wood. “If we’re going to stop overdoses from happening, we urgently need to end the harms caused by prohibition while also implementing upstream responses that address the serious health and social consequences of untreated addiction.”
There were no deaths at supervised consumption or overdose prevention sites.
