Greater Victoria sees eight suspected drug overdose deaths in one week
VICTORIA — Drugs are likely to blame for the deaths of eight people in Greater Victoria over the past week, says the BC Coroners Service.
The only confirmed overdose was a man who died in a downtown Victoria parkade on Dec. 20, but seven other deaths are suspected to be overdoses, too, and officials are waiting for toxicology reports to confirm, said Coroner Barb McLintock.
The man who died in the parkade had a “very mixed” cocktail of drugs in his system, she said, including morphine, heroine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
The other deaths include a man in James Bay, two men at the same Saanich address on separate days, a woman in Langford, a woman in Esquimalt. On Saturday, a man died in downtown Victoria’s tent city and a woman died in Sooke.