Figures released by the Province show that British Columbia recorded more illicit drug overdose deaths in December than ever before.
A total of 142 people died as a result of a drug overdose last month – that’s an average of nine every two days.
The staggering number was the highest ever recorded for a single month in BC. The December deaths bring the total for 2016 to 914, a staggering 80% increase in 2015’s statistics.
The year-end data show that more than half of those who died were between the ages of 30 and 49, four out of five who died were men.
Victoria, Vancouver, and Surrey had the highest number of fatal drug overdoses in the province.
The BC Coroners service did not release data on the proportion of people whose deaths were related to fentanyl; however, those figures should be available in March.
