2024 is tracking to be the deadliest year ever in Quesnel when it comes to illicit drug deaths.
The BC Coroners Service says there were 14 suspected overdoses through August of this year, which is already the second most ever for an entire year.
The record is 18 in 2020.
There were 12 in all of last year.
There were 11 suspected illicit drug deaths in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region through August, compared to 13 in all of 2023, and one in 100 Mile House through 8 months of this year, compared to three in 2023.
The Northern Interior Health Service Delivery area, which includes Quesnel, continues to have by far the highest death rate out of the 16 in the province at 92.6 deaths per 100,000 people.
Northern Vancouver Island is next at 76.
The Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap Health Service Delivery Area, which includes Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, has a death rate of 61.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
A combined 370 lives were lost to a toxic drug overdose in BC during August and September according to data released by the Coroners Service.
Those numbers equate to about six deaths per day on average.
Unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death for people in B.C. between the ages of 10 and 59.
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