An ambulance leaves the Cochrane District EMS station with its emergency lights on in Timmins, Ont. on April 10, 2021.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Accidental drug-related deaths nearly doubled during the pandemic in Ontario, with an average of eight people dying every day in 2021, according to a new report that underscores the severity and growing complexity of the crisis.
Nearly 9,000 people died from accidental drug overdoses in the province from January, 2018, to December, 2021, according to the report, released Thursday by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network and Public Health Ontario. Many of those who died had ingested more than one substance – such as an opioid paired with a stimulant like cocaine – a trend that became more prevalent after the pandemic hit in March, 2020.
The majority of all overdose deaths from 2018-21 involved opioids, specifically illicit fentanyl, which is highly lethal even in small doses and often added to drugs without the user’s knowledge. About 60 per cent involved stimulants, namely cocaine and methamphetamine; about 13 per cent involved alcohol; and about 9 per cent involved benzodiazepines.
“We need to recognize that people are using a lot of different substances and often they are using them together,” said senior study author Tara Gomes, who is a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital and a principal investigator of the ODPRN. “That really complicates our understanding and the need for multiple different kinds of services.”
While supervised consumption sites have become a flashpoint in the debate over how to respond to the overdose crisis, the vast majority of drug-related deaths in Ontario took place in private residences, the study found. Three-quarters of those who died were male, with a median age of 40.
The total number of accidental overdoses rose from 1,586 in 2018 to 2,886 in 2021.
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Low-income neighbourhoods had a higher proportion of overdose deaths compared with wealthier areas and the rate of death was nearly three times higher in northern Ontario compared with southern Ontario.
People living in northern Ontario face a number of barriers linked to systemic social inequities and intergenerational trauma experienced by the large First Nations population in those regions, the report said. There are also fewer harm-reduction and treatment options available.
Sault Ste. Marie, which has some of the highest opioid overdose rates in the province, doesn’t have a supervised consumption site. And two sites in Sudbury and Timmins risk being closed because of a lack of permanent provincial funding, according to a recent Canadian Press report.
Anne Marie Hopkins, director of operations at Ottawa Inner City Health, said the pandemic exacerbated the crisis and that it remains a serious problem.
“A lot of services had shut down. We saw so many people re-enter drug use from their recovery,” she said.
There has never been an overdose death at Ottawa Inner City Health, which runs a supervised consumption site and has around 250 visits a day, Ms. Hopkins said. The people who are most at risk of dying from an overdose are those who use alone because they are afraid of being judged or facing criminal charges, she said.
“People who use drugs are an extremely stigmatized group of people. A lot of people hide their drug use,” Ms. Hopkins said. “We’re not taking care of people who are using alone.”