OTTAWA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- An average of 10 people die from illicit drug overdose every day in Canada, according to a study released by the Public Health Agency of Canada on Tuesday.
The study, using data from the two years till March 2018, showed that nearly 75 percent of those who died during the period were men aged between 25 to 54, and most overdoses happened when people were using alone indoors.
Almost a quarter of those who died visited an emergency room in the year before their death. Around 17 percent of those hospitalizations were for opioid poisoning or mental health issues.
The study also shows that in British Colombia, the number of people who died of an illicit drug overdose more than doubled over five years from 293 in 2011 to 639 in 2016.
The British Colombia Coroners Service said earlier that more than half of those who died from drug overdoses in British Colombia province in 2016 and 2017 had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder or had evidence of being mentally ill.
The study found only a quarter of people who died from drug overdoses were employed in their last five years of life. Those who did have a job made a little more than 28,400 Canadian dollars (about 21,460 U.S.dollars).
About a fifth of those workers had jobs in construction, with 13 percent working in building maintenance, waste management and other support service industries.
Around 40 percent of those who died of an overdose didn't receive any social assistance benefits in their last five years.
The majority of people who died of an illicit drug overdose didn't have any contact with police in their last two years of life.
Those who were accused of a crime in their last two years were most often accused of shoplifting.
