B.C.’s overdose crisis is hitting Indigenous peoples way harder than any other group – Straight.com
May 28th, 2019
B.C.’s overdose crisis is killing a disproportionate number of the province’s Indigenous peoples. That’s the clear takeaway from a depressing statistical update shared yesterday (May 27) by the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA).
“In 2018, 193 First Nations men and women died of an overdose in the province, a 21 percent increase from a year earlier,” it reads. “Overall, First Nations accounted for 13 percent of overdose deaths, up from 11 percent in 2017.”
Indigenous people account for roughly three percent of B.C.’s total population.
The numbers mean that an Indigenous person in B.C. is 4.2 times more likely to die of an opioid overdose compared to a non-Indigenous person.
