File Photo (Image Credit: Global BC)

By James Peters

Overdose Deaths

B.C. Coroners Service reports high rate of overdose deaths in Kamloops so far in 2020

May 7, 2020 | 12:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — There are concerning numbers from the B.C. Coroners Service Thursday (May 7) with regards to British Columbians dying of illicit drug overdoses.

In a new report detailing deaths in the first three months of 2020, the service says 113 people died of drug overdoses in B.C. during the month of March.

That is the first time a monthly total of overdose deaths has hit triple digits in a year, since March of 2019. The March total is also a 61 per cent increase from February.

Broken down by community, the numbers are worrying for Kamloops.

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Eleven people have died of drug overdoses in Kamloops over the first three months of the year, tying Kamloops with Kelowna for fourth-most in the province, behind Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria.

The 11 deaths in January through March puts Kamloops on pace to exceed its yearly total from 2019, when 27 people died.

The rate of deaths so far this year is third-highest in the Thompson-Cariboo region, with 28.6 deaths per 100,000 population. That trails only the Northeast and Vancouver.

The Coroners Service lists Lillooet and the North Thompson among the local health areas exhibiting the highest rates of overdose death.

Read the full report: