The BC Coroners service has shared preliminary findings, which show that 152 British Columbians died in January of this year due to toxic drug use.
Of those 152 deaths, 21 took place on Vancouver Island and eight deaths occurred in the Greater Victoria region.
Since the toxic drug death public health emergency was initiated in April 2016, there have been at least 16,199 deaths in BC due to overdose.
In January, most of those who died of toxic drug use were between the ages of 40 and 59-years-old, with 79% of fatalities being men.
According to the BC Coroners Service, January marked the fourth consecutive month in which the number of deaths attributed to unregulated drug toxicity was below 160.
Fentanyl was the most common substance detected in toxicology reports among January’s fatalities with 77% of decedents having the drug in their systems.
Just behind fentanyl, methamphetamine was found in 52% of decedents and bromazolam was found in 46%.
According to the BC Coroners Service, the number of toxic drug deaths equates to around 4.9 deaths per day.
The municipalities with the highest number of unregulated drug deaths so far in 2025 are Vancouver, Surrey and Greater Victoria.
