Overdose death of University of Victoria student student could likely have been prevented, report finds

The overdose death of an 18-year-old student in residence at the University of Victoria was likely preventable, and university officials fumbled the response during the medical emergency and in the days and months afterward, a new report has found.Sidney McIntyre-Starko died after ingesting a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl with two other young women in a campus residence bathroom on Jan. 23, 2024. The three friends did not know what was in the vial of white-grey powder they had obtained but divided the contents into three lines and snorted it, knocking two of them unconscious.The 123-page report by former Abbotsford police chief and lawyer Bob Rich was commissioned by the university. Mr. Rich, who made 18 recommendations to change campus culture around drug risks, established a detailed timeline of the events around Ms. McIntyre-Starko’s death.