New study sheds light on opioid victims in effort to create better interventions
VANCOUVER — The first snapshots from a project aimed at providing a better picture of people at greatest risk of illicit drug use reveal that an average of nearly 10 Canadians fatally overdosed each day between 2016 and 2018.
Statistics Canada says the data from the Public Health Agency of Canada show British Columbia is facing the worst of the crisis.
Further data from the agency reveal victims in B.C. range from employed people who have never had contact with the justice, social assistance or hospital systems to those with little work history and long-term legal and social issues.
BC Coroners Service numbers included in the study show overdoses leaped from 293 in 2011 to 639 by 2016 and nearly three-quarters of those deaths involved 25- to 54-year-old men.