January was another grim month in BC for deaths caused by toxic illicit drugs.
Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe says 207 people died, an average of 6.7 every day, the third-highest monthly toll since 2016 when a public health emergency was declared due to rising toxicity of street drugs.
Lapointe says there were also concerning increases in drug-related fatalities in small and medium-sized communities in January, with 11 deaths in Kamloops and 19 recorded across the Northern Health region.
She says a safer drug supply is one key to solving the crisis, a recommendation contained in a report issued earlier this week examining more than six-thousand drug deaths in BC, but Premier John Horgan has said it's too early to commit to the proposal.