New data from the BC Coroners Service shows there were a record 13 illicit drug toxicity deaths in Kamloops in the month of April.

It tied the record set August of last year, taking the total number of lives lost in Kamloops this year to 31 people.

“April is tied for the most unregulated drug deaths in Kamloops with August 2022, which now also includes 13 such death,” Coroners spokesperson Ryan Panton told RadioNL by email.

With an average of 7.75 deaths a month this year, Kamloops is on pace to hit a record 93 toxic drug deaths this year, which would make it the fourth straight record year after 92 such deaths in 2022, 77 in 2021, and 60 in 2020.

Provincewide, there were 206 British Columbians who died due to toxic drugs last month – an average of 6.9 per day – taking the total on the year to 814 people.

The Coroners Service says April was the 31st consecutive month in which at least 150 lives were lost to unregulated drugs in the province, and the 13th month in which more than 200 deaths were reported. They note fentanyl is present in about eight of every 10 deaths, and its almost always in combination with other substances. April also saw an increase of benzodiazepines, largely due to better testing at the Provincial Toxicology Centre.

“We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the root of this crisis was the arrival of illicit fentanyl in B.C. in 2013, and that it has been driven by illicit fentanyl ever since,” Chief Coroner, Lisa Lapointe said, in a statement.

“Safer-supply prescribing and the decriminalization of small amounts of some drugs for personal use are recent health-centred approaches to a complex health challenge.”

At least 12,046 British Columbians have lost their lives due to toxic, unregulated drugs in the seven years since the public-health emergency was first declared in April 2016.

“Anonymous allegations and second-hand anecdotes suggesting that these new initiatives are somehow responsible for the crisis our province has been experiencing since early 2016 are not only harmful, they are simply wrong,” Lapointe added.