Local social media (you shouldn’t pay too much attention to social media) sometimes suggests that an overwhelmingly large proportion of BC’s unregulated drug deaths take place in Greater Victoria.
The data shows otherwise.
See the chart above.
Drug deaths here are roughly in the same proportion as our proportion of BC’s population. And drug deaths take place in rural areas, the North, the Interior and small towns. In fact, more drug deaths occurred in “other townships” (those not listed) than in Vancouver. See chart below for drug deaths by Health Service Delivery Area.
The data on deaths comes from the BC Coroner’s Service monthly reports. The Service’s data also shows that unregulated drug deaths in BC are trending downward since 2023 – a trend mirrored in cities across North America. Of course, the numbers in this region and elsewhere are still a crisis, and more needs to be done to bring them down.