It appears that the illicit drug epidemic is getting even worse in the Northern Interior, which includes Quesnel.
The BC Coroners Service is reporting a total of 84 drug overdoses in the Northern Interior Health Service Delivery Area through the first 6 months of this year.
That is on pace to easily surpass last year’s record total of 127.
There were 104 in all of 2022.
The death rate in the Northern Interior is 106.6 people per 100,000, by far the highest out of the 16 areas in the province.
Northern Vancouver Island is next at 78.8 deaths per 100,000.
The only numbers for Quesnel specifically is 9 suspected overdoses through April, which compares to 11 in all of 2023.
The Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap, which includes Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, had 70 illicit drug overdose deaths through June.
That compares to 143 in all of 2023.
The death rate in the Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap is 53.5 per 100,000 so far in 2024, which is 6th out of 16.
Province-wide, the Coroners Service says 1,158 British Columbians have lost their lives to unregulated drug toxicity in the first half of this year, including 185 in June for an average of more than 6 people per day.
The data shows that nearly half of the deaths in June were people between the ages of 30 and 49, with men making up 72 percent of that total, although the number of deaths for women has increased to 28 percent.
Fentanyl continues to be the driver of these deaths, with the opioid found in 82 percent of the toxicological deaths so far this year.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
