The BC Coroners Service says there were 102 suspected drug overdose deaths in February, an equivalent of about 3.6 deaths per day.
The February number is a nearly 73 per cent increase over the number of deaths in the same month last year.
However, it is a drop from the numbers seen in January when 117 people died of illicit drug overdoses.
This is the second consecutive decline since December, when the number peaked at 142, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a single month in the province.
READ MORE: Drug overdose among the top 10 causes of death in B.C.
The Coroners Office says about three quarters of illicit drug overdose deaths last month were among people aged 19 to 49. Men accounted for just over 83 per cent of these deaths.
The top three municipalities with the most fatalities include Vancouver, Surrey and Kelowna.
Eighty-nine per cent of illicit drug overdose deaths occurred inside people’s homes and other inside locations, with only 10 per cent of deaths occurring outside — in vehicles, sidewalks, streets and parks.
There were no deaths recorded at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites in February.
The data collected in 2015 and 2016 also suggests the top four detected drugs relevant to illicit drug overdose deaths were cocaine (49.4 per cent), fentanyl (40.1 per cent), heroin (37.8 per cent) and methamphetamine/amphetamine (29.5 per cent). However, drugs tested by Health Canada indicate that fentanyl and its analogues are being detected in samples of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The Coroners Office says illicit fentanyl–involved deaths appear to drive the increase in the number of illicit drug overdose deaths since 2012 as the number of overdose deaths not involving fentanyl has remained relatively stable since 2011.
There were a total of 914 overdose deaths in all of 2016, an increase of almost 80 per cent over the number of deaths in the previous year (510).
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