Visualizing the Toxic Drug Crisis’s Deadliest Year Yet | The Tyee ( thetyee.ca )
There were 2,511 overdose deaths related to the unregulated toxic drug supply in British Columbia last year, meaning that an average of just under seven families a day lost a loved one.
This makes 2023 the deadliest year on record since the province declared a public health emergency nearly eight years ago.
Over 40,000 people in Canada have died due to toxic drugs since 2016, with nearly 14,000 of those deaths occurring in B.C.
Unregulated drugs are the leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 59 in B.C., killing more people than suicides, homicides, accidents and natural diseases combined.
To conceptualize the magnitude of the crisis, The Tyee has visualized some of the data points reported by the by BC Coroners Service last week.
