Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

Toxic drug deaths in BC could surpass 2,000 before the end of 2021

Dec 9, 2021 | 4:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — With two months of data still to come in 2021, British Columbia is already reporting the highest number of deaths in a single year as a result of an increasingly toxic drug supply.

So far, 1,782 people have died from using toxic drugs, according to data released by the BC Coroners Service on December 9. That includes 201 deaths in October 2021, the highest monthly total ever in the province. On average, that’s more than 6 deaths per day.

“Today we will lose six more people. Tomorrow we will lose six more people. And by Christmas, we’ll have lost another 40 to 50 members of our communities,” Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe says. “That is just not acceptable any longer.”

In Kamloops, there have been 60 deaths from January to October this year. That number ties the highest total recorded in the city since the public health emergency was first declared back in 2016.

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“It’s absolutely tragic,” Deputy Mayor Dieter Dudy tells CFJC Today. “It’s that story that just doesn’t go away, and no matter what we try and do, it doesn’t seem to want to go away. What it does tell us is that what we’re doing isn’t working.”

With 45 deaths per 100,000 residents, Interior Health is one of the hardest-hit health authorities in the province. The BC Coroner’s Service also noted four of the five Local Health Areas with the highest death rates – Lillooet, Merritt, North Thompson, and Enderby – are located within Interior Health.

“We’ve doubled the number of supervised consumption sites across British Columbia. We’ve been able to support local service providers throughout our health authorities in all corners of the province to end up new and innovative services,” Sheila Malcolmson, BC Minister of Mental Health and Addictions explains

Since the province declared a provincial health emergency on April 14, 2016, more than 8,300 people have died from toxic drug use. Along with creating spaces for folks to get into recovery programs, the province is lobbying the Federal Government for help.

“We are the only place in Canada advocating and advancing an application for decriminalization,” Malcolmson says. “And that on the safe supply, which is one of the ways we’re tackling the overdose crisis.”

While the province has committed more resources than ever before to mental health and addictions, BC’s Chief Coroner says more needs to be done.“Right now, when we’re seeing six people die every day it’s just simply not going to happen fast enough to prevent hundreds of more deaths,” Lapointe says.

Dudy believes it’s going to require a significant amount of capital – both financial and political – for meaningful change to take place.

“If we want to save the lives of those young people – or even older people – that we’re finding dead in their rooms or out on the streets, then we’re going to have to come up with a different approach.”