The number of people dying from toxic street drugs has dropped sharply compared to last year in B.C., but 91原创 is not seeing a dramatic decline yet, according to data released by the BC Coroner's Service on July 31.
Data from May and June give a preliminary estimate of 22 people dead in 91原创 since the start of the year from unregulated drugs.
That's six additional deaths since the Coroner's Service reported on the numbers for March and April, when 16 deaths had been recorded.
Given the rate of deaths in the first half of the year, 91原创 could see a similar number of deaths to last year, when 44 people died.
While there are few encouraging signs locally, the data shows that province-wide, fewer people are dying of street drugs than in recent years.
There were 145 deaths in May and 147 in June, according to the preliminary count, with a total of 915 across B.C. for the first half of 2025.
Despite that high death toll, it's considerably lower than the same months a year ago, when 181 people died in May and 185 in June of 2024.
It's also a decline in the number of deaths from April, when 165 people died.
Fentanyl, a powerful prescription opioid, remains the most commonly detected drug found in cases of toxic drug deaths, but its use appears to be declining. In 2024, fentanyl was wound in 83 per cent of all drug deaths, and it had been in the mid-80s since 2017. So far this year, fentanyl has been found in 74 per cent of all cases.
The Coroner's Service has added a new piece of data to its updates on the drug crisis, by including the occupation of the dead person, if it is known.
The largest category this year is "unknown," at 55 per cent, with the second-most common the category of trades, transport, and equipment operators, accounting for 21 per cent of all deaths from 2022 to 2024.
The next most common category is sales and services at 10 per cent, followed by natural resources and agriculture, at four per cent. No other job category represented more than two per cent of the totals.
