Loved ones rally across B.C. to mark 10 years since toxic drug crisis was declared an emergency

scoring a decennium of lives missed to B.C.'s toxic do drugs crisis

B.C. Health Minister reflects on “surreal” 10th anniversary of drug emergency declaration

The danger of opioids as B.C. Marks 10th anniversary of toxic drug public health emergency

When Insite opened in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 2003, it was the first time people who used illicit drugs "could walk into a welcoming space with trained staff and nurses on hand to respond to overdoses, deal with immediate health issues, and provide referral to addiction treatment," according to a news release from Vancouver Coastal Health marking the facility's 20th anniversary. 

In late 2016, in an early response to the public health emergency, then B.C. Health minister Terry Lake authorized the first overdose prevention sites outside Vancouver. Since then, the number of these sites has grown to 45 provincewide. Here is the breakdown by health region:

Interior: 9

Fraser: 11

Northern: 7

Island: 7

Vancouver Coastal: 11 (8 in Vancouver alone)

Dr. Ryan Herriot, an addiction physician in Victoria, told me he's concerned about the government's focus on treatment and worries there hasn't been enough focus on preventing deaths.

"Governments like to talk about other things. They like to talk about dollars spent … they like to talk about beds opened, they don't like to talk about outcomes for human beings very much," he said. 

"Are they doing anything to curb the deaths? That's the metric that matters."

Toxic drug deaths in B.C. Are about four times more common among men than women so far in 2026. 

Deaths among men have been more common since the emergency was declared. The gender gap has narrowed in the past couple of years, mostly due to declining rates of deaths among men.

Hi, I'm a senior reporter and data journalist based in Vancouver. I'll be using data from the B.C. Coroners Service to take a closer look at what the numbers tell us about this crisis.

Looking more closely at the ages of those who've died, we see that until 2020, toxic drug deaths in the province were most common among people aged 30 to 39. That changed after the pandemic, with deaths since then more common among those aged 40 to 59.

More than 18,000 people in total have died due to toxic drugs in B.C. Over the past 10 years. 

Most of the people dying are aged 30 to 59. About half die in private residences. The majority are men. About one-fifth work in trades. And a disproportionate number are First Nations.

The unregulated drug supply is the leading cause of unnatural death in B.C., according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

It's been 10 years since the province announced a public health emergency in response to an increase in toxic drug deaths. 

A public health emergency gives the government more power to make changes to regulations and collect data in order to better address a health-related crisis. 

About 474 people died from using toxic drugs in 2015, the year before the emergency was declared. 

In 2025, 1,833 lives were lost to the toxic drug crisis.

---

---