Inquest rules B.C. student’s overdose death accidental, recommends naloxone training

By Canadian Press on May 15, 2025.

BURNABY — A coroner’s jury in British Columbia has recommended high schools provide resuscitation training and demonstrations of how to use naloxone after ruling that the overdose death of a University of Victoria student last year was accidental.

The inquest found 18-year-old Sidney McIntyre-Starko died of brain injuries caused by a lack of oxygen after fentanyl use.

The jury made 10 recommendations, including the training of high school students and that the University of Victoria create mandatory orientation for first-year students on how to obtain and administer naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose.

Other recommendations to provincial ministries include that campus security at all post-secondary institutions be provided with naloxone, supplementary oxygen and an automated external defibrillator.

University of Victoria president Kevin Hall says in a statement that the school “will take time to consider the findings of the inquest” on how it will inform its approach to overdose prevention and harm reduction.

McIntyre-Starko used street drugs laced with fentanyl with two other students in a university residence, and a report last month found she could have been saved had she received naloxone or respiratory support.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2025.

The Canadian Press