Four more people have died of toxic drugs in New Westminster, according to the latest report from the BC Coroners Service.
Preliminary reporting released by the coroners service on Dec. 9 shows that 155 people in B.C. died from unregulated toxic drugs in October 2024.
The coroners report shows that 24 people in New Westminster died of unregulated drug deaths between January and October 2024. That is up from 20 in the previous month’s report.
Provincewide, the 155 deaths in October represents the lowest monthly number of deaths from drug toxicity since September 2020. But the coroners service cautioned that the risk of harm and death remains high.
“October's data equates to about five deaths per day,” said the report.
According to the report, 1,925 people have died from unregulated drug toxicity in B.C. in 2024.
“This is a nine per cent decrease, representing a significant decline in the number of deaths, compared with the first 10 months of 2023 (2,107 deaths),” said the report.
The BC Coroners Service said it does not have the investigative data to suggest why this decrease has occurred, though it is consistent with reporting from other jurisdictions. The BCCS is working with its partners to understand this further.
“Unregulated drug toxicity remains the leading cause of unnatural death for people in British Columbia aged 10 to 59, and accounts for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined,” said the report.
The data is preliminary and is subject to change as additional toxicology results are received and investigations are concluded.
Additional findings from the latest report include:
- No deaths were recorded in October due to unregulated drug toxicity for people under the age of 19.
- Half of the deaths reported were people between the ages of 30 and 49.
- Females accounted for 22 per cent of deaths in October. So far in 2024, the rate of death among females is 20.6 per 100,000 people, which is more than double the rate of 9.2 five years ago (2019).
- Males accounted for 78 per cent of deaths in October.
- The two primary drug types detected in decedents who underwent expedited toxicological testing in October were fentanyl (87.1 per cent) and stimulants (80.7per cent).
- By health authority, Vancouver Coastal had the greatest number of unregulated drug deaths (48), followed by Fraser (43).
- Vancouver had the highest number of unregulated drug toxicity deaths in October 2024 (39), followed by Surrey (16) and Greater Victoria (nine).
