“This is a crisis of incomprehensible scale.”
This was the assessment from B.C.’s chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, on Tuesday when she released the latest statistics on drug-poisoning deaths.
Statistics show the second highest number of deaths - 374 - ever recorded in the first three months of a calendar year across the province.
This includes six Richmond residents, two of whom died in March of drug poisonings.
Last year, 29 people died in Richmond of drug poisonings, and, across the province, this number was 2,314.
On average, 6.4 people die every day in B.C. of toxic drugs, often laced with fentanyl, carfentanil and benzodiazepines, which cause people to go into respiratory arrest.
Last Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the B.C. government declaring the drug poisoning/overdose crisis a medical emergency.
Family and friends of those have died in Richmond gathered on Friday at the Library and Cultural Square to remember their loved ones and to bring awareness to the drug poisoning crisis.
Since the emergency was declared, more than 11,000 people have died across the province due to “the unregulated drug supply,” Lapointe noted.
