The tremendous loss that continues to impact our communities is carried with us as we draw attention to key findings from the BC Coroners illicit drug toxicity data in comparison to recent data from our drug checking project in Victoria, BC. Thread https://substance.uvic.ca/blog/stable-supply-safer-supply/

Our recent service data shows the volatility and uncertainty in the illicit opioid drug supply in Victoria, BC. It would appear that overdose deaths are less attributable to a ‘bad batch’, but rather the unpredictability of the unregulated market. /2

For example, our data shows that nearly 50% of opioid-down samples in December 2020 were found to have fentanyl concentrations above 10%, which is the average potency we have seen in the supply. This mirrors the findings of the coroners report. /3

Not only is the overall trend of increased fentanyl concentrations concerning, there is additional uncertainty with fentanyl concentrations at any given time. Figure 1 shows the variance of fentanyl concentrations we checked within each week of December. /4

To compound this, the amount of benzodiazepine adulteration continues to increase in opioid-down, significantly impacting overdose response and increasing the risk of multiple harms, including death. 41% of down samples in December contained Etizolam, /5

This table showcases the comparison between our December service data and the coroners report. It would appear that overdose deaths are less attributable to a ‘bad batch’, but rather the unpredictability of the unregulated market. #bcpoli #yyj

Supply and policy-based responses are long overdue! #SafeSupplyNOW #Harmreduction #drugchecking #bcpoli #yyj #cdnpoli