British Columbia’s annual death toll from overdoses is poised to decline for the first time since the province’s public-health emergency began – but non-fatal overdoses show no signs of abating and health officials say the crisis is far from over.
At least 69 people died from illicit-drug overdoses in October, bringing this year’s death toll to date to 823, according to the BC Coroners Service. The monthly figure is a 42-per-cent decrease from the same period last year, and puts the province on pace to lose about 1,000 people by year’s end, compared with 1,542 last year.
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“Fewer people are dying, which is a good thing, but there is a big risk that people will start thinking, okay, we’re getting ahead of this, we’ll take our attention away from it,” said Perry Kendall, interim acting executive co-director of the BC Centre on Substance Use and former provincial health officer. “In fact, there are still a number of things to be really concerned about.”
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Similar story can be found in the Richmond News.
