Five people a day still dying from toxic drugs in B.C.: Coroner
B.C. declared a public health emergency because of the tainted illicit drug supply in April 2016.
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Next month will mark a decade since B.C. declared a public health emergency over the tainted illicit drug supply causing an alarming number of overdose deaths.
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Since then, more than 16,000 British Columbians have died from unregulated drugs and the number continues to climb.
On Friday, the B.C. Coroners Service said nearly five people a day lose their lives, with 150 deaths reported in January.
The coroner says that although this number represents a decrease of 10 per cent from the number of deaths in January 2025, it still equates to 4.8 deaths daily and is consistent with the number of deaths reported monthly throughout 2025.
Nearly three-quarters of the deaths in January were people between 30 and 59 years old, and 80 per cent were men, said Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, B.C.’s chief coroner in a news release Friday.
Fentanyl continues to be identified in a significant majority of deaths, with nearly eight in every 10 tests returning positive results, the coroner said. Other drugs showing up in the unregulated supply include hydromorphone, benzodiazepines and fluorofentanyl, which is similar but stronger than fentanyl.
Smoking remains the dominant mode of consumption, and the highest number of unregulated drug deaths were in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities.
Earlier this year, B.C. officials issued a rare provincewide alert over an increase in toxic drug poisonings, saying unregulated drugs contaminated with the powerful animal tranquillizer medetomidine was the most likely cause.
During the week of Jan. 16 to 22, B.C. paramedics responded to over 1,100 drug-poisoning calls, including 256 calls on Jan. 21 alone — a single-day record for the province. The previous single-day record was 222 calls on Nov. 19, 2025.
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The coroner said that last year there was an increase in drug deaths among youth under 19 years old, with 26 deaths compared with 21 in 2024.
