File Photo (Image Credit: BC Coroners Service)

By James Peters

Toxic Drugs

Pace of drug deaths in Kamloops picked up over the past two months: BC Coroners Service

Jul 31, 2025 | 11:51 AM

VICTORIA — The pace of drug overdose deaths has picked up in Kamloops, but the province says at the halfway point in 2025, the city is still trending well behind last year’s pace.

New numbers from the BC Coroners Service show 30 deaths attributed to drug toxicity in Kamloops through the first six months of the year. The last update sharing totals to the end of April showed Kamloops at 16 deaths.

The city has recorded at least 85 drug toxicity deaths in each of the past three years.

The province says it has recorded 915 drug deaths in BC to the end of June, which puts the province on pace for its lowest total since 2020.

According to the coroners service, the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap still has one of the highest fatality rates due to illicit drug use in the province.

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Fentanyl was found in 70 per cent of all drug death cases in BC so far this year, with methamphetamine and cocaine both contributing in more than half of all such deaths.