Two Princeton residents died so far in 2023, as of June 30, from drug overdoses or poisoning, according to the latest report on unregulated drug deaths from the BC Coroners Service.
That brings the total of deaths locally to 21 since 2017.
Mayor Spencer Coyne said that while some progress is being made in Princeton in terms of services and prevention, it’s still not enough.
“Because of our rural location and remoteness, we haven’t always gotten the same level of resources that we need for the level or the complexity of the problem,” Coyne said.
He acknowledged that Interior Health has increased staffing for addiction and mental health, and that groups such as Princeton Family Services, and OneSky and The Foundry from Penticton, are working with clients and the community.
“We still have a long way to go…It’s more complicated than addiction and a lot of it has to do with mental and there is always an underlying factor that is not worked into the statistic.”
Overall in B.C., there were 184 overdoses in June 2023, a 17 per cent increase over the number of deaths in June the previous year.
Last month there were 6.1 drug-related deaths per day in the province.
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