The Northern Health Authority has already recorded the same amount of illicit drug overdose deaths this year compared to last, according to the BC Coroners Service.
With a total of 60 across the region, 39 have come from the northern interior. That number is up from 34 recorded in all of 2017.
Medical Health Officer for the northern interior, Dr. Andrew Gray, explained why reducing overdose deaths can be difficult and, at times, unpredictable.
“There can be increased risk if people are mixing fentanyl with alcohol or other opioids. That’s a situation of increased risk and that builds the case that some of the deaths we see involve those multi-drug mixtures.”
In the northern interior, the number of illicit drug overdose deaths has risen each year since 2013. This comes despite efforts from the provincial government and Northern Health to reduce deaths in the north and across BC. It appears 2018 will continue that trend, however, Dr. Gray noted it could be worse.
“You always have to look at what the situation would be if we weren’t doing what we’re doing,” he said.
“The number of naloxone [kits] that has been distributed, the number of people that have access to replacement therapies, there has been a massive increase in those kinds of prevention measures.”
Dr. Gray argued without the measures taken to reduce deaths, the numbers we currently see could be two or three times higher. The northern interior is listed by the BC Coroners Service as being one of the five health service delivery areas with the highest rate of illicit drug overdose deaths.
In September across BC, there were 128 suspected drug overdose deaths. That is a 38% increase over the number of deaths that occurred in September 2017 (93) and an eight percent increase over August of this year (118).
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