Toxic illegal drugs in British Columbia are causing more deaths annually than all other unnatural causes of death combined according to the province’s chief coroner.  Speaking at a press conference on Feb. 9, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said at least 2,224 people died from illicit drug overdoses in 2021—a 26 percent rise over the previous year—with an average of six lives lost every day.  “In the past seven years, the rate of death due to illicit drug toxicity in our province has risen more than 400%. Drug toxicity is now second only to cancers in B.C. for potential years of life lost,” Lapointe said.   In its preliminary data released on Feb. 9, the B.C. Coroners Service reported that the death rate due to illicit drugs was 42.8 per 100,000 people in 2021, compared to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2014. By 2020, the death rate had already far surpassed the total …