In the past few years, the Province of British Columbia has experienced a substantial increase in the number of opioid-related overdoses and deaths. In absolute numbers, illicit drug overdose deaths related to opioid use increased from 294 in 2010 to 1,489 in 2018. Much of this appears due to the introduction of synthetic narcotics such as oxycontin and fentanyl. The situation became sufficiently dire that the Province declared a public health emergency in 2016 (Otterstatter et al. (2018)).
Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research
