File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Overdose Deaths

B.C. records 155 more overdose deaths in February; four more in Kamloops

Mar 24, 2021 | 11:21 AM

KAMLOOPS — B.C. has recorded its 11th consecutive month with more than 100 deaths due to illicit drug overdoses, and its highest total ever for the month of February.

New figures released by the B.C. Coroners Service Wednesday (Mar. 24) show 155 drug overdose deaths recorded last month. That is down slightly from the 174 people who died in January, a month with three more days.

Kamloops saw one such death in January, but had four more in February for a total of five so far in 2021. There were 60 overdose deaths recorded in Kamloops in 2020.

The B.C. cities with the most overdose deaths for the first two months of the year are Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria.

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe says preliminary data suggests about 85 per cent of the overdose deaths this year have involved the presence of fentanyl.

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Lapointe says males accounted for 81 per cent of overdose deaths so far in 2021, and 69 per cent of the deaths were in people between the ages of 30 and 59.