BC Sees Lowest Drug-Related Deaths Since 2020, but Toll Remains High at 2,253

Seized fentanyl is displayed during a press conference at BC RCMP Divisional Headquarters in Surrey, B.C., Feb. 23, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin

British Columbia recorded its fewest drug-related deaths since 2020 last year, yet the death toll continues to be high at 2,253 lives lost.

Data recently released by the B.C. Coroners Service indicates a 13 percent decrease since 2023 when 2,511 people died; yet the number of fatalities still far exceeds the 1,776 reported in 2020.

“The information collected by our coroners during their investigations into unregulated drug toxicity deaths, indicates a decline in fatalities over the last several months of 2024,” chief coroner Dr. Jatinder Baidwan said in a press release. “This is consistent with reporting from other jurisdictions in Canada and internationally. This doesn’t mitigate the fact that 2,253 members of our communities died in 2024.”

The rate of death in 2024 dropped to 40 per 100,000 people compared to 47 per 100,000 last year, 45 per 100,000 in 2022, and 44 per 100,000 in 2021, the report said. The province’s population currently sits at 5.7 million.

The overall death rate is down, but has risen significantly among females, the coroner service found. While men accounted for nearly 75 percent of all recorded deaths, the death rate among females has jumped 65 percent in the past four years to 20 deaths out of every 100,000 residents. In 2020 that figure stood at 13 per 100,000.

Adults in their middle years are also the most likely to die from drug use, the report said. Seven out of every 10 deaths occurred in the 30 to 59 age range.

The primary contributor to drug-related fatalities continues to be fentanyl and its analogues. The drug was identified in 78 percent of the samples analyzed, the coroners service said. Cocaine was a contributing factor in 52 percent of deaths, followed by fluorofentanyl at 46 percent, methamphetamine at 43 percent, and bromazolam at 41 percent.

Vancouver centre-north, Lillooet, Campbell River, Terrace, and Prince George were identified as the communities with the highest rates of death per capita.

B.C. was the first province in Canada to decriminalize drug use as part of a three-year pilot project with Health Canada. The federal agency issued an exemption to its drug laws in January of 2023, decriminalizing possession of up to 2.5 grams of certain illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

The province was not yet halfway into the three-year pilot project when it asked Ottawa to recriminalize open drug use in public places such as hospitals and playgrounds. The move came after a public outcry, with some police and health-care workers saying the project was making the drug problem in B.C. communities worse.

The federal government approved the recriminalization request last May.

The drug crisis has claimed the lives of more than 16,000 people in British Columbia since a public health emergency was first declared in April of 2016.

Police Crackdown

Federal investigators in the province have been cracking down on fentanyl production in the province in recent months.

The Pacific Region RCMP said it dismantled the “largest and most sophisticated” drug-production lab in Canadian history last fall.

The Oct. 25 take-down came after several months of investigative work into a transnational organized crime group involved in the production and distribution of “massive quantities” of fentanyl and methamphetamines, police said.

The RCMP said the combination of confiscated precursor chemicals and finished fentanyl products could have become 95.5 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl.

A similar bust was carried out by the Surrey RCMP. A series of seven searches were executed last November by the force’s drug unit in Surrey, Coquitlam, New Westminster, Vancouver, and Richmond. A substantial quantity of cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine, and fentanyl was uncovered as well as prescription and counterfeit prescription pills.

The investigation began at the street level in 2023 and culminated in the bust against drug wholesalers and distributors, police said. Three men were arrested in connection with the investigation.