'This is a fentanyl crisis': B.C.’s chief coroner on data linking 142 young deaths to toxic drugs
CTV
British Columbia is getting a clearer picture of how the drug overdose crisis is impacting its youngest population, after new data was released by the coroners service on Monday.
British Columbia is getting a clearer picture of how the drug overdose crisis is impacting its youngest population, after new data was released by the coroners service on Monday.
Between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2022, the BC Coroners Service says 142 deaths among people aged 19 and younger were linked to toxic drugs.
That number accounts for about 1.4 per cent of the total 10,453 deaths recorded in that six-year span, according to Lisa Lapointe, the province’s chief coroner.
“Fortunately, youth have represented a very small number of those who died,” Lapointe told CTV News on Monday. “We know there’s a lot of interest in the youth data and we wanted to provide a fulsome picture.”
While the number represents a small proportion, it’s more than triple the annual average of 6.4 deaths that population saw between 2012 and 2016.
In the most recent period, unregulated drug toxicity was the leading cause of unnatural deaths among people younger than 19 years old, ahead of suicide and motor vehicle accidents.
A mental health diagnosis, or evidence of a mental health disorder, was linked to 67 per cent of the fatalities.
