Vancouver Island saw 29 illicit drug deaths in August, down from 32 in July.
Nearly 1,500 people have died from illicit drug use in B.C. so far this year, including 251 in the Island Health region.The B.C. Coroners Service reported 169 drug deaths across the province last month — roughly 5.5 deaths per day.
Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said there is an urgent need for the government to develop a provincial framework for safer supply distribution. Lapointe referred to a report released in March by a death review panel that examined more than 6,000 overdose deaths from August 2017 through July 2021. It found the primary cause of illicit drug overdoses is a combination of an increasingly toxic supply and a current policy framework that forces users to go to illegal sources.