2024 - Vancouver - DTES - 1 of 3
I shop in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) most days and it’s been a few years since I posted photos of the desperation of drug users in the area.
I became numb to the situation years ago as I see scenes like this in large numbers on every DTES trip. Most of the people seen like this on the streets of the DTES will likely not die as the response of emergency services are called here dozens of times a day. On Monday I counted 11 emergency service vehicles attending drug users within a 2 block area.
More deaths occur by people alone at their place of abode. Since the province declared an emergency health condition in 2016, the problem has only gotten more disheartening.
The supply of more toxic drugs with more lethal consequences has become worse. There appears to be little headway made in curtailing the illegal supply.
The latest report from the BC Coroners Service suggested it's time to post again. Here are three.
1 of 3.
BC Coroners Service drug toxicity death update through June 2024:
At least 1,158 British Columbians have lost their lives to unregulated drug toxicity in the first half of 2024, according to preliminary data from the BC Coroners Service (BCCS).
The findings show there were 181 and 185 suspected unregulated drug deaths in May and June 2024, respectively. Though the number of deaths to date this year is lower than at the same mark over the previous three years, approximately six people are still dying each day because of unregulated toxic drugs.
“People are continuing to lose their loved ones in communities across B.C. at a tragic rate,” said John McNamee, acting chief coroner. “Even as the figures reflect a 9% decrease in the number of deaths reported to the coroners service during the first six months of this year from 2023, the number of lives lost is still significant.”
Nearly half of reported deaths in May and June were people between the ages of 30 and 49. While males account for 72% of deaths so far in 2024, the rate of deaths among females continues to rise and currently accounts for 28% of deaths in 2024.
More than one-fifth of the lives lost so far in 2024 have been in Vancouver (22%).
Fentanyl continues to be the driver of unregulated drug-toxicity deaths, detected in 82% of expedited toxicological tests conducted so far in 2024.
Unregulated drug toxicity remains the leading cause of death in British Columbia for those age 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined. Since the public-health emergency was declared in April 2016, more than 14,948 people have lost their lives to unregulated toxic drugs.
2024 - Vancouver - DTES - 1 of 3
I shop in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) most days and it’s been a few years since I posted photos of the desperation of drug users in the area.
I became numb to the situation years ago as I see scenes like this in large numbers on every DTES trip. Most of the people seen like this on the streets of the DTES will likely not die as the response of emergency services are called here dozens of times a day. On Monday I counted 11 emergency service vehicles attending drug users within a 2 block area.
More deaths occur by people alone at their place of abode. Since the province declared an emergency health condition in 2016, the problem has only gotten more disheartening.
The supply of more toxic drugs with more lethal consequences has become worse. There appears to be little headway made in curtailing the illegal supply.
The latest report from the BC Coroners Service suggested it's time to post again. Here are three.
1 of 3.
BC Coroners Service drug toxicity death update through June 2024:
At least 1,158 British Columbians have lost their lives to unregulated drug toxicity in the first half of 2024, according to preliminary data from the BC Coroners Service (BCCS).
The findings show there were 181 and 185 suspected unregulated drug deaths in May and June 2024, respectively. Though the number of deaths to date this year is lower than at the same mark over the previous three years, approximately six people are still dying each day because of unregulated toxic drugs.
“People are continuing to lose their loved ones in communities across B.C. at a tragic rate,” said John McNamee, acting chief coroner. “Even as the figures reflect a 9% decrease in the number of deaths reported to the coroners service during the first six months of this year from 2023, the number of lives lost is still significant.”
Nearly half of reported deaths in May and June were people between the ages of 30 and 49. While males account for 72% of deaths so far in 2024, the rate of deaths among females continues to rise and currently accounts for 28% of deaths in 2024.
More than one-fifth of the lives lost so far in 2024 have been in Vancouver (22%).
Fentanyl continues to be the driver of unregulated drug-toxicity deaths, detected in 82% of expedited toxicological tests conducted so far in 2024.
Unregulated drug toxicity remains the leading cause of death in British Columbia for those age 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined. Since the public-health emergency was declared in April 2016, more than 14,948 people have lost their lives to unregulated toxic drugs.