The province’s ongoing opioid crisis is showing no signs of slowing down, as a BC Coroner’s Service report says a total of 161 people are believed to have died from illicit drug overdose in March.
Those numbers show a 58% increase over the month before, and a 24% increase over March 2017.
There have now been a total of 391 deaths across the province up to March.
The number of illicit drug overdose deaths in March 2018 is equal to about 5.2 deaths per day for the month. Victoria is one of three townships experiencing the highest number of deaths, having a recorded a total of 34 so far this year.
The report states that the proportion of illicit drug overdose deaths in which illicit fentanyl was detected was approximately 84% in 2017 and 83% in 2018.
The data also suggests that the presence of fentanyl is largely responsible for the uptick in drug overdose deaths, as the number of overdose deaths excluding fentanyl has remained somewhat stable since 2011.
91% of overdose deaths occurred indoors, with 8% occurring outside in parks, vehicles, streets, and elsewhere.
There have been no deaths recorded at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites.
