Twenty-three people died of toxic drugs in Chilliwack in the first nine months of 2024, according to figures released Thursday (Oct. 24) by the BC Coroners Service.
This compares to a total of 60 such deaths in Chilliwack for all of 2023, 53 for 2022 and 61 for 2021.
The numbers aren’t available for all individual communities, but they include the neighbouring communities of Abbotsford, which had 60 unregulated drug deaths from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, and Langley, which had 29.
The Coroners Service reports that a total of 1,749 people died from unregulated drug toxicity across B.C. in the first nine months of this year.
This represents an eight per cent decrease from the first nine months of 2023, when there were 1,896 such deaths.
The majority of deaths in 2024 continue to happen indoors, with 48 per cent in private residences and 32 per cent in other residences such as social and supportive housing, single-room occupancies, shelters and hotels.
Nineteen per cent of deaths happened outside in vehicles, sidewalks, streets or parks.
The rate of death among females has increased 60 per since from 2020. Twenty-six per cent of fatal overdoses so far this year have been females.
Seventy per cent of those dying are between the ages of 30 and 59.
Fentanyl was detected in 82 per cent of cases in 2023 and 2024, while cocaine was at 49 per cent and meth was at 44 per cent.
RELATED: 1,700 people die of toxic overdoses in B.C. in first 9 months of 2024
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