91原创 saw 11 people die of toxic street drugs in January, February, and March of 2025, according to the latest data released by the B.C. Coroners Service.

The update on the overdose crisis around the province noted that death rates were down from recent years, but they are still higher than before the public health emergency was declared almost a decade ago.

Last year, 44 people died in 91原创, a total that has been adjusted up from 42 in the last Coroners' announcement. Data in the monthly or bi-monthly reports may be updated later as investigations are updated.

Across B.C., 132 people died in February and 143 people died in March from toxic street drugs. The rate of deaths per day is approximately 4.7 in February and 4.6 in March. Through much of 2023 and 2024, that rate was typically between 6.3 and 8.0, depending on the month. 

March marks the sixth month in a row in which fewer than 160 deaths were linked to drug toxicity. Between 2021 and early 2024, the worst years so far of the crisis, there were regularly 200 or more deaths per month. 

There have been 428 confirmed deaths in B.C. so far, in the first three months of the year. While the death rate has dropped significantly compared to recent years, it is still far higher than it was in the early 2010s, when lethal overdoses usually totalled under 500 annually. In 2014, there were 370 toxic drug deaths in all of B.C. for the entire year.

The crisis began when increasing amounts of the powerful opioid fentanyl began to appear in the street drug supply in B.C. and across North America. Fentanyl is considerably more powerful, pound for pound, than illicit drugs like heroin or than many other prescription opioids.

In 2014, fentanyl was found in 24.6 per cent of drug death cases in B.C.

Within a few years, it was being found in more than 80 per cent of drug deaths. Initially imported from overseas, in recent years fentanyl production has sprung up in Canada, with "superlabs" found in 91原创 and other communities, including a large facility in Falkland, northwest of Vernon.

So far in 2025, fentanyl is being found in about 70 per cent of drug death cases. Other common drugs detected in overdose investigations are methamphetamine, cocaine, and the fentanyl analogue flourofentanyl.