Last year, up to three quarters of people killed by B.C.’s toxic drug supply in parts of the province had smoked — not injected — their fatal dose, according to figures from the coroners service.
But in some regions of B.C. that saw the highest rates of death by inhalation, drug users had no access to any supervised consumption or overdose prevention sites that allow smoking.
The 2021 figures from the B.C. Coroners Service show that the vast majority of illicit drug deaths in every Health Service Delivery Area in the province were caused by smoking, rising to highs of 74 per cent in the Northern Interior and 68 per cent in Kootenay Boundary.
Meanwhile, as of July, only 13 of 42 monitored consumption sites in B.C. allow smoking, and they’re mainly clustered on the South Coast and Vancouver Island. There are none east of Abbotsford or north of Campbell River.
The updated statistics on mode of consumption were obtained by drug policy advisor Karen Ward, who described them as “infuriating” in light of the lack of harm reduction services for people who inhale their drugs.
“It’s so predictably tragic and sad,” she said.
“All I want is a reality-based drug policy and a reality-based emergency response. At this point, I have had it with experts who have no idea what’s going on.”
The life-saving effects of a safe, monitored place to do drugs are remarkable. According to numbers from the province, there were zero deaths at overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites between January 2017 and July 2022, despite 3.2 million visits in that time.
But those sites are still largely geared toward people using needles.
