Recent figures show illicit drug poisonings attended by the BC Emergency Health Services in Nanaimo are more than double the per capita rate when compared to other communities within Island Health.
In a presentation to Nanaimo City Council on Monday, Dr. Shannon Waters, current interim Medical Health Officer for the Nanaimo area, along with some of her colleagues, spoke about the current rise in toxic drugs around the city.
In the first ten months of 2023, BC Emergency Health Services attended 964 illicit drug poisoning in the Greater Nanaimo area. This is a rise from 586 poisoning from last year. This total equals to an average of 89 overdoses attended per month between October 2022 and October 2023.
In 2022, 85 Nanaimo residents died from illicit drug toxicity, and so far 99 residents have lost their lives in the first ten months of 2023.
