Drug Overdose Deaths Up 75% Over Last Year
Prince George, B.C. – The BC Coroners Service has released some startling numbers regarding illicit drug overdose deaths in this province.
From January through May 2016, there were 308 accidental illicit drug overdose deaths – a 75% increase over the numbers of deaths occurring during the same period last year when there was 176.
Preliminary data suggests that fentanyl played a huge factor in the increase with the Coroners Service confirming the drug was detected in 56% of all overdoses.
In previous years the proportion was:
2012= 5%
2013=15%
2014=25%
2015=31%
Year to date in the North there have been 11 fentanyl-detected deaths (6 in Fort St John, 3 in Prince George, 1 in Dawson Creek and 1 in Terrace).
This is way ahead of last year’s pace when there were 14 fentanyl-detected deaths in the North the whole year. In 2014 there were 10 fentanyl-detected deaths, in 2013 7 and in 2012 1.
Here are the numbers to date this year for all region’s.of the province:
Fraser: 38
Metro: 36
Island: 38
Interior: 25
Northern: 11
From January through May this year, an average of 61.6 apparent illicit drug overdose deaths occurred each month. Last year, the average number of illicit drug overdose deaths was 40.3.
Comments
It’s terrible for sure but for deaths very little can compare to that other legal white powder or surup sugar . 2011 4.6 million world wide people died from diabetes. Per capita we a third worst . Canada receives a “C” and ranks 15th out of 17 peer countries on mortality due to diabetes .
And it’s only getting worse .
we all do have choices in what we put in our bodies. You don’t have to have four cans of pop every day. Nothing wrong with water and none of that water flavouring stuff they sell.
^^ Amen, especially when we have some of the best potable water on the planet. Sad about the overdoses, addiction is a horrible cross to bear.
Part of the issue is kids are more educated about drugs than ever so they stick to pot thinking they will be safe, however the drug dealers are lacing pot with crack and after one joint most kids are hooked for life, very sad.
You have no clue, and neither does your “friend” .. I smoked pot for about 10 years way way back when and still have lots of friends that still do.. And not ONE has ever purchased any pot laced with anything. That’s over 35 yrs of research.. So go blow your smoke up your friends butt..hope it’s not laced with anything 8)
Btw a fellow I know died from an OD this weekend inPG.. Won’t know the reason for 3 months according to the coroner..
His gateway drug was alcohol….
PVal, your experience as described does not qualify you as an expert. Nor am I, but I have it on good authority that
there are low life scumbags who have and I assume continue to intentionally lace joints with crack or meth.
That is a fact.
I do not have any idea of the prevalence of that practice.
If you or your friends are buying pre-rolled joints, it may be only a matter of time until your un-lucky numbers are drawn.
metalman.
P.Val, it is you with no clue, do you really think nothing has changed since the 70’s??? I never knew anyone who did hard drugs back then, you would buy a quarter ounce from a buddy and away you went. Just because you or anyone you know has not bought laced pot does not mean it does not happen.
Using your logic is like saying, drunk driving does not exist because I have not been hit by a drunk driver and nobody I know has been hit by a drunk driver either in 35 years, I guess it is the government run main stream media that is telling me drunk driving exists, more government lies!!!
Peter North, you have drank the reefer madness kool aid. Pot has a ready market, especially with the over 60 year old crowd, it can be legally obtained with a photo ID.
Its all about the money with the ‘dealers’ whether they be shady guy (complete with pornstar ‘stache) on the street corner, legal dispensaries, or big pharma and their distributors. So, why in the world would you add any value to a product that has already a good profit margin and is in short supply, while there is a separate market for ‘crack’.
The public is generally to bright to listen to your ’50’s type thinking.
I have no idea what the druggies do to be honest, I was told this by a detective in the EPS vice squad. Apparently you seem to have some inside info on how druggies conduct their business so maybe what you say is true, I don’t know.
I am guessing you don’t know business very well, you give a little away for free to gain a lifetime customer, that seems like good business to me.
Of course law enforcement is bent that way, part of their indoctrination, works especially well if you get them young.
Business’s thrive on price, service, quality, connecting a product to an activity or lifestyle among a few.
Definitely not giving the product away hoping the customer will come back……………..the consumer is too educated for that. Ya, like Pattison Chev-Olds gave cars away.
The few police officers I am related to will say the same thing , about 10 years into their careers.
Drugs must be legalized to end the carnage that prohibition has wrought. But , alas it is an industry unto itself with the law enforcement community, the legal industry and corrections not to mention a sea of therapists on the public dime.
Please enlighten me! I have never taken any pot or anything stronger than that, so I am somewhat puzzled why the hard drug dealers sell fentanyl or other super potent drugs to their addict clients when some of them actually die from taking that stuff! Are they not killing off their customers one by one?
Please enlighten me ! The way it was described on TV . CBC I think . Fentanyl is 100 times as potent as heroin . W18 is 100 hundred times as potent as fentanyl. Both are synthetics of heroin . If one makes a cell phone volume of w18 , one can cut it and make the volume of a city bus . Get it ? Both seem to be disrupting the traditional heroin market in Vancouver according to the news reader . I would argue that this must be going global .
Prohibition produces a black market which does not have any or at least unreliable QC measures.
So like back in the day moonshine could make you blind, had to know the manufacturer as this was a local cottage industry for the most part.
Then again masturbation would make you blind…….back in the day.
All drugs should be legal, taxed, regulated and of course restricted to adults. Help care should be provided such as safe injection sites. For such drugs as Heroin.
I think heroin is over . This could be the end of wacko countries economies . Like Afghanistan et al . You are right . The government should look after the adictics they have created through the health care system ala OxyContin etc. ( synthetic heroin ) . That w18 must be dirt cheap . Somebody should do the cost analysis. Crime verses health care view .
I watched a man in the emergency ward a few weeks back pull out his wires from his heart scan so he could go outside for a smoke. Pretty discusting.
I have ran out of compassion for these burden’s on society. Let Darwin’s Theory sort them out. Spend our tax dollars on helping improving education and healthcare in the north, something productive.
Of course, the bleeding hearts will continue to hand out clean needles, somehow patting themselves on the back in the process.
Comments for this article are closed.