The newly released report also shows an increase in the presence of benzodiazepines, which is largely the result of enhancements to benzodiazepine testing by the Provincial Toxicology Centre. Members of our communities are dying because non-prescribed, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is poisoning them on an unprecedented scale.” ![]() This drug poisoning crisis is the direct result of an unregulated drug market. “Cocaine, methamphetamines and/or benzodiazepines are also often present. “Illicit fentanyl continues to be the main and most lethal driver of B.C.’s drug-toxicity public-health emergency, having been detected in 86% of deaths in 2022 and 79% of deaths in 2023,” said Lisa Lapointe, the province’s chief coroner. ![]() B.C.’s top coroner noted that fentanyl, often mixed with other drugs, is present in eight out of every 10 deaths. The province noted in a press release that the illicit drug supply remains highly volatile, challenging people’s best efforts to use safely and challenging life-saving responses. ![]() Preliminary data from the BC Coroners Service shows that April 2023 was the 31st consecutive month in which at least 150 lives were lost to unregulated drugs in B.C., and the 13th month in which more than 200 deaths were reported. Four people have died from unregulated drugs in Merritt through the first four months of 2023, with 814 lives lost throughout the province.
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