B.C. drug deaths continue to decline in September, down 19 per cent from 2025

Moms Stop the Harm advocates and supporters on the sixth anniversary to mark the public health emergency of the declaration due to the significant increase in opioid-related overdoses across the province in Victoria on April 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

VICTORIA — Toxic drug deaths in British Columbia in September were down about 19 per cent from the same month last year, continuing a pattern that has seen deaths this year fall to the lowest levels since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BC Coroners Service says 133 people died from suspected unregulated drug toxicity in September, at a rate of roughly 4.4 deaths a day.

The September death toll is up from the 113 deaths reported in both May and July this year, representing the lowest numbers of monthly fatalities in B.C. since 2019.

The service says there have been 1,143 toxic drug deaths in B.C. between January and September, down 40 per cent compared to the same months in 2023 at the peak of the crisis.

The declines reflect a phenomenon that has seen opioid deaths drop sharply across much of North America in recent years.

The regions with the highest drug toxicity deaths in the province remain the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health authorities’ areas, with 311 and 298 deaths so far this year, together comprising 53 per cent of all such deaths in B.C.

Among the most common drugs found in expedited toxicological testing were fluorofentanyl, found in 68 per cent of such cases, cocaine at 55 per cent and methamphetamine at 53 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.