Preliminary reporting from the BC Coroners Service confirms that at least 177 people in British Columbia were lost to toxic, unregulated drugs in February, including 31 in Interior Health.

Three people have died in the East Kootenay in 2024 up to February, according to the BCCS report.

The total number of lives lost reflects an 11% decrease from the number investigated by the Coroners Service in February 2023, and a 12% decrease from the number reported in January 2024.

However, February is also the 20th consecutive month in which there have been at least 175 deaths suspected to be caused by the toxic-drug supply reported by the agency. An average of 6.1 lives were lost per day in February 2024.

Rates of death throughout the province remain significantly elevated. The province-wide rate of death for the first two months of 2024 is 40.1 per 100,000 residents, which is below the record numbers reported in 2023 but still nearly twice the rate recorded in 2016, the year the public-health emergency was first declared. Of note, both the Northern (76.7) and Island (54.3) health authorities recorded record-high rates of death in the first two months of 2024.

Toxicological testing continues to reflect a volatile and inconsistent drug supply throughout B.C. As has been the case throughout the toxic-drug crisis, fentanyl and/or one of its analogues has been identified in about eight out of every 10 test results in 2024, often in combination with cocaine, methamphetamine and/or other substances. Nearly every unregulated drug death is the result of mixed drug toxicity.

Unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in British Columbia for persons aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined. The lives of at least 14,208 British Columbians have been lost to unregulated drugs since the public-health emergency was first declared in April 2016.

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