The province is on track to equal or even slightly exceed 2017’s record opioid overdose death toll.

Last year 1,486 people died of an illicit drug overdose.

The BC Coroners Service spokesperson Andy Watson says there were 120 deaths last month pushing the total number of deaths so far this year to 1,380.

“Looking at this year over year it is just over a 13% increase in the number of deaths and a 9% increase month over month between October and November of 2018.”

Watson says the biggest at risk group continues to be men who are using alone.

“We continue to deal with a toxic drug supply. Four out of every five deaths we see have fentanyl detected in them either in isolation or in combination with other drugs.”

In Kamloops he says 39 people have died of an illicit drug overdose so far this year, one more than in all of 2017.

“We are about on track from where we were last year. We saw between the end of September’s report and the data to the end of November we have seen seven suspected illicit drug deaths in the City of Kamloops. Right now slightly tracking above the total from 2017 but again we still need to see December’s numbers come in.”

Watson says the Interior Health Authority had the second highest rate of illicit drug overdose deaths but Vancouver continues to be the epicentre of the crisis.

There has yet to be any overdose deaths at any of B.C.’s overdose prevention or supervised consumption sites.