The vast majority of illicit drug overdoses in Surrey happen at a private residence.

That's according to a report coming before the Surrey Police Board on Wednesday, Feb. 12, based on overdoses attended by, or reported to, the Surrey Police Service and Mounties in 2023 and 2024. Naloxone was administered by police 160 times in 2024.

In 2024 there were 174 fatalities in 659 overdose cases and in 2023 there were 196 deaths in 752 overdoses. The first two weeks of May see the most overdoses (80), and the most overdose deaths happen in those weeks (22) and in the first two weeks of January (also 22). The fewest overdoses (45) occur in the last two weeks of April and last two weeks of December, while the fewest amount of deaths (10) happen in the final two weeks of December.

In both years, the most overdoses and overdose deaths happened in Whalley, followed by Newton, Guildford/Fleetwood, South Surrey and Cloverdale.

Of the 196 overdose deaths, 118 happened at a private residence in 2023 and 100 in 2024, while 40 happened outside in 2023 and 35 in 2024, and at an "other residence," 21 were recorded in 2023 and 32 in 2024.

For the purposes of this report, private residences are considered to be the victim's own or someone else's residence, driveway, garages or trailer home. Other residences are hotels, motels, shelters, rooming houses and social/supportive housing while "outside" indicates streets, sidewalks, parking lots, public parks, wooded areas, campgrounds and stairwells. Jails are federal, provincial and police cells and medical facilities are hospitals, community care facilities, medical clinics and supervised consumption sites.

Seven people died of a drug overdose at a business in 2023 and two in 2024; five died in a vehicle in 2023 and three in 2024; four died in jail in 2023 and none in 2024; nobody died at a medical facility in 2023 and one person died in 2024; nobody died at a supervised consumption site in 2023 and one died in 2024, and one person died of an overdose in 2023 at a location listed in the report as "unknown."

Meantime, there were 479 male, 154 female and 26 gender "unknown" overdose victims in 2024. Of those, 12 were under the age of 18; 95 were aged 19-29; 196 were 30-39; 137 were 40-49; 89 were 50-59; 39 were 60-69, four were between the ages of 70 and 79; and in 87 cases the victim's age is "unknown."

As far as ethnicity, of those 659 who overdosed in Surrey in 2024, six were Asian, 20 were Black, 335 were Caucasian, 13 were Hispanic, 55 were Indigenous, 13 were Middle Eastern, 96 were South Asian, one person's ethnicity was listed as "other" and 120 as "unknown."