A chilling trend: Drug deaths rise as winter begins

Graph from BC Coroners Service October dug deaths report

The BC Coroners Service (BCCS) released a public warning this week of a recent rise in toxic drug deaths. While November numbers have not been released yet, the service estimates more than 200 people in BC died, with an average of seven a day for seven weeks.

That well exceeds what was anticipated in the October report, and pushes BC to the brink of setting a grim new annual record

So far in 2023 (Jan-Oct.), 2,039 people have died from toxic drugs, with 379 on the Island including 130 in Greater Victoria. November and December would need the lowest two-month total in three years to not send this year past the 2,304 seen in 2021 and record 2,377 in 2022.

And based on these early estimates from BCCS, those numbers are far from low.

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Winter months typically bring more deaths

“Unregulated drug deaths in the winter months have historically increased over the numbers reported during the rest of the year,” the BCCS statement reads. “This early increase could be a sign of another challenging season for people who use drugs in BC.”

Colder months push people indoors where they’re more likely to use alone—something the BCCS urges people not to do. In 2023, 80% of toxic drug deaths occurred indoors, with many of these believed to be those using alone. Proposed legislation to restrict where people can use drugs has been criticized for potentially pushing people to use indoors in order to avoid penalties.

Reports on toxic drug deaths aren’t released during December out of respect for those who have lost loved ones during the year, making it unlikely that an in-depth overview of these increased deaths will be available by the end of the year.

This rise in deaths—particularly approaching the holiday season—is not a surprise for Victoria organizations working with people who use drugs.

“We typically see an uptick in services and more people reaching out and struggling around Christmas,” said Evan James, training and education manager at Umbrella Society in Victoria.

“Even before the fentanyl crisis started, Christmas was a tough time for addicts and people in recovery. It’s a difficult one for those of us trying to do the ‘one day at a time’ thing—there’s all this focus on a day in the future with a big buildup and big let down that comes with it.”

To prepare for this, James says that Umbrella Society opens up drop-in services throughout the holidays, offering additional services at a time when people typically need it most—including staying open over Christmas to offer support, meetings and meals.

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Things still getting worse in 2023, outreach workers say

For Katherine Francis, the Pandora Caretaker for SOLID, the rise in toxic drugs has been felt by outreach workers throughout Victoria—and 2023 has not brought improvement.

“Our levels of overdoses that we’ve noticed have increased quite a bit,” Francis said.

“Speaking from the heart, I believe things are getting worse,” she said. “Overdose numbers are so high and we’re unable at this time to meet the needs that are being incurred from the numbers.”

She worries about a “snowball effect” as toxic drug deaths increase and services don’t adapt to address the complexity of the issue.

She says that obvious solutions include more housing and mental health care, but there should also be a focus on community and socialization. Safe injection and inhalation sites—where the average stay is 45 mins to an hour, longer than it takes to inject—are spaces she says can bring people together to  “use in a supervised fashion and to socialize.”

Francis explains that offering people a place to use communally can reduce the risk of them using alone. She hopes to see more daytime shelters open to provide a warm place for people to come together.

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Still awaiting expansions of safer supply and recovery beds

Increasing access to safer supply is another important aspect of lowering the death rate according to Francis.

“These overdoses are obviously coming from toxic drugs—if those were eliminated, we would definitely see a reduction in overdoses in my opinion,” said Francis, aligning with what many experts have called for this year.

This week, over 130 substance use experts sent an open letter urging the federal government to focus on concrete data of the benefits of safe supply and to continue funding prescribed safer supply programs that could lose their contracts in March 2024.

In November, a report from the coroners service’s death review panel called on the provincial government to increase access to safer supply to those without a prescription and to make safer supply readily available in rural communities.

As for progress in improving recovery services since the opioid crisis began, James at Umbrella says it has been a “colossal failure,” saying that support systems for recovery are still “hugely lacking.”

“We’re still in a position where we don’t have readily available detox and treatment beds for people who want to make changes,” said James. “We’re seeing more people dying than ever—there’s a lot of people out there dying who want help and who want to make changes. To me, it’s simply unacceptable.”