The health service delivery area that covers Quesnel is no longer the worst in the province when it comes to unregulated drug deaths.
It is however, according to the BC Coroners Service, the second worst out of 16.
The death rate for the Northern Interior was at 52.1 per 100,000 through the month of May.
Central Vancouver Island was at 53.
There have been 33 suspected overdoses in the Northern Interior through May.
That is below the pace of last year when there were 86 in 12 months.
The most ever in the Northern Interior was 132 in 2024.
The Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap, which includes Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, had a death rate of 24.6 per 100,000 people through May.
That was 11th out of the 16 health service delivery areas.
The Coroners Service says there were 24 suspected overdoses in the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap through May.
There were 105 in all of 2025.
Provincially, there were 109 suspected unregulated drug deaths in B.C. in May.
That is the lowest number recorded since February of 2020, when there were 79.
So far this year, there have been 630 deaths due to suspected unregulated drug toxicity.
Most, 68%, were people between the age of 30 and 59.
76% were male.
