A combined 370 lives across the province have been lost due to a toxic drug overdose in the months of August and September according to the BC Coroners Service.
On average, that is about six deaths per day.
In that two-month span, Northern Health recorded 25 fatalities, 17 of which were in the northern interior.
This year, 107 toxic drug deaths have been recorded in the northern interior of the 160 recorded across Northern Health.
Numbers are below last year’s 127 recorded deaths in the northwest.
Nechako has recorded three deaths this year compared to 11 last year.
1749 people have lost their lives to toxic drugs across the province this year, a nine per cent decline compared to last year’s 2573 deaths.
In 2024, 70 per cent of those who died were between the ages of 30 and 59, with three quarters of them being male.
Northern Health continues to have the highest deaths per 100,000 at 70.3 – the next highest being Island Health at 52.6.
Unregulated toxic drugs are the leading cause of deaths for people in British Columbia between the ages of 10 and 59 – more than homicides, suicides, accidents, and natural disease combined.
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