Toxic Drug Crisis Cut Life Expectancy for B.C. Men More Than COVID-19, StatsCan Report Reveals

A new Statistics Canada report, co-authored by members of B.C.'s Office of the Provincial Health Officer, reveals that toxic drug overdoses reduced life expectancy for men in British Columbia more than COVID-19 during the pandemic.

The report examines the impact of various causes of death on life expectancy between 2019 and 2022, showing that men in B.C. lost up to 1.8 years of life expectancy while women lost just over half a year.

For women, the leading cause of life expectancy decline was COVID-19, followed by unregulated drug toxicity. However, for men, drug deaths were the primary factor in reduced life expectancy, followed by COVID-19.

Toxic Drug Supply Worsened During the Pandemic

Deputy Provincial Health Officer Dr. Daniele Behn Smith, one of the report’s authors, said the team aimed to examine the broader health impacts of the pandemic beyond COVID-19 deaths.

"What were the impacts outside of that, as it related to all of the societal-type impacts that came with the public health response?" Behn Smith said.

During the pandemic, B.C.'s unregulated drug supply became increasingly contaminated, potent, and lethal, Behn Smith noted. Public health restrictions led to increased isolation, meaning more people used drugs alone, with fewer bystanders available to intervene in an overdose.

For Mona Woodward, a board director with the Surrey Union of Drug Users, the findings are unsurprising.

"I think it got more dangerous because you have to do a lot of things in isolation and there wasn't a lot of people around," said Woodward, who lost friends during that period.

"There was nobody around, and it was scary. It was really, really scary — It had that eerie feeling."

Signs of Improvement, But Gender Gap Remains

While the report does not include 2023 data, Behn Smith noted that women's life expectancy appears to have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, men's life expectancy has improved, but has not yet recovered to its 2019 peak of nearly 81 years.