Health officials and the Coroners Service of British Columbia are expected to release the total number of overdose fatalities in 2017 today, while the current death toll already exceeds records. The B-C coroner has said 12-hundred-and-eight fatalities were recorded in the first 10 months of 2017. The powerful opioid fentanyl was detected in 999 of the confirmed and suspected deaths — an increase of 136 per cent from the same period in 2016.