There have been 680 suspected deaths in 2021 with an average of 170 fatalities every month. B.C. is on pace in 2021 to shatter last year’s grim record of 1,726 drug deaths The province declared a public health emergency in 2016 in response to an alarming number of drug overdose deaths. In the five years since, more than 7,000 British Columbians have died from an illicit drug overdose The B.C. Coroners Service says fentanyl, the synthetic opioid fuelling the crisis, was detected in 86 per cent of the deaths both this year and last. In 2012, fentanyl was detected in just five per cent of drug overdoses.