Three people died in Coquitlam of illicit drug overdoses in September, bringing the number of deaths in 2017 to 21, according to statistics from the BC Coroners Service, which is publicizing the numbers as the province tracks this health crisis.
The numbers show nearly a doubling of drug deaths in Coquitlam since 2016, when 13 deaths were reported for the entire year, and are equivalent to the total number of drug deaths that occurred in the city between 2005 and 2013.
(In 2014, overdose deaths in the city began to spike, with 10 in 2014, 11 in 2015 and 13 deaths in 2016.)
Coquitlam is one of many cities noted for drug overdose deaths in the most recent report but no numbers are reported for Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. That’s because the report doesn’t include numbers where overdose deaths are fewer than five because of month-to-month variability and privacy, according to spokesperson Andrew Watson.
In all of B.C., there were 80 suspected drug overdose deaths in September, representing a 31% increase from September 2016. The suspected number of illicit drug overdose deaths province-wide for the year to date is now 1,103, up from 607 at this time in 2016.
Approximately 83%, or 914, of the suspected illicit drug deaths to date in 2017 had fentanyl detected, representing an increase of 147% over the same period in 2016. In most cases, fentanyl was combined with other illicit drugs, most often cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine. Carfentanil has been detected in 37 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths between June and September of 2017.
Other trends the coroners office notes include that almost three of every four deaths involved people between the ages of 30 and 59, and four out of five who died were male while nine out of every 10 deaths occurred indoors, including more than half in homes.
