‘Critically important’: B.C. needs safe places to inhale drugs, coroner says

Nearly two-thirds of the overdose deaths in British Columbia this year came after smoking illicit drugs.

Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia this year came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, and the chief coroner says that needs to change.

Lisa Lapointe said the latest data show 65 per cent of overdose deaths in 2023 came after smoking drugs, compared to 15 per cent involving injection, 14 per cent snorting and five per cent from oral consumption. The coroners’ office notes that people can consume using multiple methods.

Also in the data, the updated overdose death toll since the province declared a public health emergency in April 2016. Almost 13,000 have died since then, more than 1,600 this year.

The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions said of the 47 overdose prevention sites in B.C., only 19 provide the option to smoke drugs.

B.C.’s original supervised consumption site is a safe injection site, but Lapointe said methods for consuming drugs have shifted over time.

“If we truly want to reduce the risk, and reduce the numbers of deaths, and help make our communities safer, then there needs to be an acknowledgment that providing a safe place for people to use drugs is critically important,” Lapointe said. “And that includes a safe place to smoke drugs.”

Those who study the topic say a combination of stigma, bureaucracy and a lack of political will are obstacles to setting up more sites for smoking drugs.

The latest analysis of the deaths contrasts with data from January 2016 to July 2017, following the declaration of the emergency, which show that one-third of deaths came through injecting drugs, while 36 per cent who died smoked drugs.