Analyzing 6,000 fatal overdoses in 4 years: Read the B.C. death review panel's recommendations on the opioid crisis

A just-released report from British Columbia's chief coroner service finds the primary cause of illicit drug overdoses in the province is a combination of an increasingly toxic supply and a current policy frame work that it says forces users to unregulated sources.

A just-released report from British Columbia's chief coroner service finds the primary cause of illicit drug overdoses in the province is a combination of an increasingly toxic supply and a current policy frame work that it says forces users to unregulated sources.

The BC Coroners Service Death Review Panel examined more than 6,000 deaths from illicit drug overdose between August 2017 through July 2021.

The report said, as the BCCS has before, that illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of unnatural death in B.C., "accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, motor vehicle incidents, drownings and fire-related deaths combined."

The expert panel said the supply is a factor in the issue, but so to is the current drug policy framework of prohibition, which it says forces substance users to buy their supply from an unregulated market, putting themselves further at risk.

 The report released Wednesday made a series of recommendations the panel believes could be key in addressing B.C.'s nearly six-year-long overdose crisis.

It's the first such report published in B.C. since 2018. At that time, the panel looked at 1,854 deaths in a 19-month period. 

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