File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Overdose Deaths

With seven more in October, Kamloops sets new annual record for overdose deaths

Nov 25, 2020 | 10:34 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops has set a new record for overdose deaths in a year.

In new data released Wednesday (Nov. 25), the B.C. Coroners Service says Kamloops recorded seven more deaths due to drug toxicity in October, lifting the year-to-date total to 50. That exceeds the previous high of 46 set in 2018.

Kamloops ranks fourth in the province in total deaths, behind only Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria and ahead of larger cities including Abbotsford, Burnaby and Kelowna.

Provincially, the picture is equally grim. The agency says B.C. recorded 162 illicit drug overdose deaths in October, a 26 per cent increase over the previous month and more than twice as many deaths as occurred in October of last year.

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The Coroners Service says that equates to about 5.2 deaths per day in the province.

Among health service delivery areas, the Thompson Cariboo is singled out as having one of the highest rates of overdose death.

Over the past two years, one of the local health areas with the highest rates of overdose death is Lillooet, along with Hope, Vancouver, Prince George and Keremeos.

The totals of those who are dying tell only part of the story of drug toxicity in B.C., and Kamloops in particular.

According to B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), a patient suffering from overdose has a 95 per cent chance of survival when paramedics respond.

In an email to CFJC Today, BCEHS says paramedics attend to approximately 80 overdoses per month in Kamloops, an average of nearly three overdose calls every day.

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