British Columbia has recorded its lowest monthly number of illicit drug overdose deaths in more than four years, part of what the B.C. Coroners Service says is a “significant decline” in fatalities this year.
A statement from the service says 1,925 people have died in overdoses this year, down nine per cent from the first 10 months of 2023.
The 155 people who died from drug poisoning in October is also a drop from the 183 people who died in September.
The office says it doesn’t have data to suggest why there are fewer deaths, but “it is consistent with reporting from other jurisdictions,” and officials are working to understand the change.
Despite the improvement, unregulated toxic drugs remain the leading cause of unnatural death in B.C. for those aged 10 to 59 and account for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined.
Garth Mullins, a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the host of the Crackdown podcast, said that he wouldn’t put a message out that the numbers indicate using drugs was safer now.
“I suppose the drug supply is very volatile, and that means it can have particularly bad months and months that aren’t quite as bad,” he told CBC News.
“That doesn’t mean that the drugs that are going around right now are safe,” he added. “Stuff you buy in the street is still very, very dangerous. So you still shouldn’t use alone. You still have naloxone. You should still test it.”
Mullins said he feared the drop in deaths in October was a blip, and he didn’t think that authorities had done anything to make the numbers go down more consistently.
“My friend Laura [Shaver] always says the numbers will go down when they run out of us to kill. And so I worry that eventually we’ll see that happen,” he said.
No youth deaths in October: coroners service
The service says 22 per cent of deaths in October were female, and in 2024, the rate of death among women and girls was more than double what it had been five years ago.
But there were no deaths in October due to unregulated drugs for people under 19.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said in a statement that her heart goes out to the family, friends and colleagues of the 155 people who died.
“The toxic drug supply remains one of the most serious threats to public health, affecting people from all walks of life. While we have seen encouraging progress, with the lowest number of deaths in four years, there is still much work ahead,” she said.
Mullins said that he doesn’t feel optimistic about the direction that B.C.’s officials were taking towards the toxic drug crisis, and he was critical of both the governing B.C.NDP and the Opposition Conservatives for pushing to expand involuntary treatment of drug users.
“Both the main parties in B.C. have just abandoned any sense of following the evidence,” he said.
“They’re going right for this scaremongering, fear-mongering, right-wing, Trump-style reaction where they just want to lock up drug users for our own good.”