Kelowna's illicit drug overdose death rate was addressed at this week's Interior Health Agency board meeting.
A report by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Trevor Corneil says that based on the number of city residents using illicit drugs, between 1,500 and 2,500 people, Kelowna is on track to record about 100 overdose deaths this year.
"So that's 1 in 20 persons who use illicit substances, other than marijuana, who are dying," he says. "And that number is tragic and outrageous - and something that we are addressing, and need to do more to address."
32 Kelowna residents died of a drug overdose, between January and April this year, compared to 47 in all of 2016.
Dr. Corneil says a large number of overdose deaths in the region, about 70%, occured in private homes - and half of those who use at home are regular users.
"And they tend to be people who are afraid to leave their home due to safety concerns about the illicit market, and the risks in that context, but also with the issue of the criminalization of possession," says Corneil adding health officials have been suggesting for quite some time that decriminalizing possession will make it easier for users to leave their homes and access care.
He also says "these statistics tell us these are people we know; people we interact with who are using drugs, and people need to acknowledge this is the case, and that these people, in most situations want help - nobody wants to die. They're using because they have a medical problem - they have an addiction to very strong and addictive substances."
Dr. Corneil says Interior Health has applied to Health Canada for a mobile safe injection site, and would like to see it approved as soon as possible, but there's no firm time-line.
Currently, a mobile prevention unit is operating in Kelowna and Rutland and in Kamloops.