Greater Victoria sees eight suspected drug overdose deaths in one week

VICTORIA – Drugs are likely to blame for the deaths of eight people in Greater Victoria over the past week, says the BC Coroners Service.

The only confirmed overdose was a man who died in a downtown Victoria parkade on Dec. 20, but seven other deaths are suspected to be overdoses, too, and officials are waiting for toxicology reports to confirm, said Coroner Barb McLintock.

The man who died in the parkade had a “very mixed” cocktail of drugs in his system, she said, including morphine, heroine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.

The other deaths include a man in James Bay, two men at the same Saanich address on separate days, a woman in Langford, a woman in Esquimalt. On Saturday, a man died in downtown Victoria’s tent city and a woman died in Sooke.

All of the deaths occurred between Dec. 20 and 26, and all of the dead appear to have been experienced drug users, McLintock said.

Members of the Coroners Service have spoken to other service providers who have reported a number of other overdoses where people survived.

“There’s certainly something going on with the drug community in Greater Victoria, whether it’s the function of the drugs or the dealers or the users or whatever,” McLintock said.

There will likely be about 450 fatal overdoses across the province in all of 2015, so eight in a single week in Greater Victoria is significant, McLintock said.

The Coroners Service is now working with police, public health and other agencies to warn drug users to be extra cautious