B.C. study shows naloxone prevented 78% of overdose deaths
From 2019 to 2024, take-home naloxone kits, overdose prevention sites, and other harm reduction services averted the majority of potential fatal overdoses across the province.
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A new study has found that take-home naloxone and other harm reduction measures prevented 78 per cent of potential fatal overdoses in B.C. from 2019 to 2024.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control's report, led by senior scientist Dr. Mike Irvine, examined the combined impact of take-home naloxone, overdose prevention sites, supervised consumption sites, and opioid agonist treatment. The take-home naloxone program was established in 2012 and now operates through 2,400 distribution sites across the province, including emergency rooms, health centres, correctional facilities, community organizations, and pharmacies.
During the study period, B.C. recorded 12,356 fatal overdoses: 992 deaths in 2019, 1,774 in 2020, 2,293 in 2021, 2,386 in 2022, 2,593 in 2023, and 2,318 in 2024. The province saw the highest death rates since the public health emergency was declared a decade ago.
"Without the interventions helping to stabilize every day, it would have been a lot worse," Irvine said.
The program saw a 20-fold increase in demand between 2016 and 2017. Irvine noted that when naloxone kits are distributed at overdose prevention sites and supervised consumption sites, they are much more likely to be used. "From community programs alone, it was equivalent to around 1,000 death events averted per 100,000 people at risk."
Irvine said the study aims to quantify harm reduction's impact and inform public health decision-making, though broader questions about public perception remain complex.