South Okanagan drug users are being warned that there are potentially fatal drugs circulating.
The warning that was issued Thursday indicates that drugs being sold as down, dope and fentanyl contain a toxic mix of substances.
The alert indicates that the drugs found contain 20 to 25 per cent of fentanyl, 15 to 20 per cent of xylazine and five to 15 per cent of bomazolam.
The drug which is either bright green or grey, creates a “high risk of overdose, fatal overdose, amnesia, sleepiness, nodding out for a long time,” Interior Health said.
The Okanagan’s overdose death toll continues to mount.
In the most recent report from the BC Coroner’s Office, 83 people had died by overdose within Interior Health up until March this year.
Of these deaths, there were 19 in Kelowna, three were in Penticton, nine were in Vernon.
In 2022, 87 people died in Kelowna, compared with 76 a year earlier. Vernon saw 40 people die in 2022 from toxic drug deaths, which was a slight improvement from a year earlier, when 42 people died. Penticton saw 27 illicit drug deaths.
Numbers released by the BC Coroners Service show deaths from toxic, unregulated drugs have nudged record levels across the province for the second year in a row.
The coroner’s service says 596 lives were lost between January and March.
It says that’s the second-highest total ever recorded over the first three months of a calendar year, behind only 2022 when 599 people died.
The figures also show that 2,314 deaths due to toxic drugs occurred last year, making the annual toll the deadliest on record since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.