Image: Q101.ca file photo / The provincial government says at least 1,158 British Columbians have lost their lives to unregulated drug toxicity in the first half of 2024, including near four dozen fatalities in Abbotsford alone, vastly exceeding Chilliwack's tally of less than a dozen drug deaths in 2024.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Toxic drug deaths in the Fraser Valley

Abbotsford easily surpasses Chilliwack in toxic drug deaths thus far in 2024

Aug 1, 2024 | 8:41 AM

CHILLIWACK — The provincial government says at least 1,158 British Columbians have lost their lives to unregulated drug toxicity in the first half of 2024, including near four dozen fatalities in Abbotsford alone.

According to preliminary data from the B.C. Coroners Service, 45 people in Abbotsford have died from unregulated drugs in 2024 alone, exceeding Chilliwack’s tally of 11 fatalities in 2024. The statistics account for deaths through June 30.

Chilliwack saw 59 fatalities in 2023 from unregulated drugs, 49 the prior year in 2022.

Abbotsford recorded 91 deaths in 2023, 92 fatalities the year prior in 2022.

Langley, with a population base of around 140,000, registered 25 fatalities in 2024, while much larger Surrey had 111 unregulated drug deaths in 2024, accounting for about 10 per cent of the provincial tally.

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The incidences of unregulated drug toxicity deaths (per 100,000) by health service delivery area are highest in the Northern Interior (106.6), North Vancouver Island (78.8), Vancouver (66.3) and Central Vancouver Island (62.8). More than 20 per cent of the lives lost so far in 2024 have been in Vancouver (22 per cent), followed by Surrey (10 per cent) and Greater Victoria (7 per cent).

Fentanyl continues to be the driver of unregulated drug-toxicity deaths, detected in 82 per cent of expedited toxicological tests conducted so far in 2024.

Unregulated drug toxicity accounts for 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 died due to unregulated toxic drugs.