BC’s Efforts to Contain Toxic Drugs Still Floundering

published on April 27, 2026 by Marilynn Larkin in Medscape

Canada overall, a total of 55,032 apparent opioid toxicity deaths and 51,563 opioid-related poisoning hospitalizations were reported between January 2016 and September 2025.

Preliminary data from the province suggest that the number of unregulated drug deaths in February 2026 alone equated to about 4.1 deaths per day. Deaths among individuals aged 30-59 years accounted for 69% of the total, and 78% of decedents were male. The highest numbers of unregulated drug deaths in the first 2 months of 2026 were in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities (62 and 74 deaths, respectively), representing 51% of all such deaths…