2024 is still in line to be the worst year ever when it comes to illicit drug overdoses in the Quesnel area.
The latest numbers released by the BC Coroners Service show that the death rate in the Northern Interior Health Service Delivery Area, which includes Quesnel, is 91.1 per 100,000 people.
That is by far the worst out of the 16 areas.
Vancouver is next at 67.2 deaths per 100,000.
The Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap Health Service Delivery Ara, which includes Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, has a death rate from illicit dug overdose of 57.3 per 100,000 people which is 6th worst out of 16.
There were 14 suspected overdose deaths in Quesnel specifically through the end of August.
That compares to 12 in all of 2023.
There were 11 in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, which includes Williams Lake, through August.
13 people died in all of 2023.
Just one illicit drug death was recorded in 100 Mile House through August.
The BC Coroners Service says 155 British Columbians lost their lives to a toxic-drug supply in October.
That represents the lowest monthly number of deaths from drug toxicity since September of 2020 in BC, although it appears that the Cariboo region is going in the other direction.
Unregulated drug toxicity remains the leading cause of unnatural death for people in B.C. aged 10 to 59, and accounts for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined.
Roughly half the deaths reported were people between the ages of 30 and 49.
Males accounted for 78 percent of the deaths in October.
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