Deadliest year in B.C.'s opioid crisis: Death toll 26% higher in 2021 than previous record

It was clear by the end of October that 2021 would be the deadliest year on record in British Columbia's opioid crisis, but on Wednesday, officials revealed just how many more lives were lost than in previous years.

It was clear by the end of October that 2021 would be the deadliest year on record in British Columbia's opioid crisis, but on Wednesday, officials revealed just how many more lives were lost than in previous years.

The province's top coroner said the death toll, which stood at 1,782 in the fall, climbed to 2,224 by the end of the year.

That's 508 more than the toll in 2020, which until October held the solemn record. Another 425 people died of suspected illicit drug toxicity in the last two months of the year, data presented Wednesday showed.

It's an increase of 26 per cent, year over year. And 2020 had been a record-breaking year as well, before that toll was surpassed in 2021.

And those numbers, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe has repeatedly stressed during B.C.'s nearly six-year-long opioid crisis, are not just numbers. They represent the lives of people who lived in the province, had dreams, had families.

An average of 6.1 people died each day in B.C. of illicit drug overdose. Many died at home. Many died alone.

Earlier this year, she said drug toxicity has become such a problem in B.C. that it's second only to cancer in terms of total potential years of life lost.