Opioid deaths down in 2022 but issue has been around for years
By KENDALL KING on December 30, 2022.
Provincial data shows a decline in the number of Albertans who died from opioid poisoning this year compared to last, but officials warn the prevalence of opioids did not begin nor end with the pandemic.
In early 2020, Alberta – like numerous other Canadian provinces – saw a sharp and sudden rise in the number of opioid-related deaths. In January, 2020, 48 deaths were reported across the province, but by May of that same year monthly totals of opioid poisoning deaths were averaging in the hundreds, a trend which continued each month until June of this year, when provincial opioid poisoning deaths dipped to 99.
The COVID-19 pandemic is often cited as causing the rise in opioid poisoning deaths and non-fatal opioid poisonings, which followed a similar trend, as, for many, the pandemic led to increased social isolation, reduced financial stability and had adverse effects on many individuals’ mental health.
But Katie Ayres, executive director of SafeLink Alberta – a harm reduction advocacy and support organization located in municipalities across Alberta – says the pandemic’s effects on Albertans’ mental well-being wasn’t the only factor to contribute to a rise in opioid poisoning deaths.
“Our team started noticing an increase in drug poisoning deaths and overdoses, probably around 2016 to 2018,” Ayres told the News. “But when COVID hit, there were some exacerbating factors which made things worse.
“One of the biggest was the borders being closed as illicit drugs that were previously filtering in through illegal channels were not accessible. So, more local drugs were being made and they would be cut with substances that were much more harmful. And one of the cheapest, most accessible things that they were cut with is fentanyl, (which is) much stronger than a lot of other substances.”
Ayres says fentanyl was one of an array of substances manufacturers would cut into the drugs. Having no knowledge that an additional substance was cut in, many drug users would take the drug in amounts they believed to be non-fatal, but would unintentionally overdose.
As well as additional substances being cut into drugs, Ayres says reduced social contact through the pandemic also affected the number of severe outcomes, as many recreational drug users live alone. If using alone in their home, they would have a lesser likelihood of contacting help in time to mediate a severe outcome, like drug poisoning.
“There’s a lot of people who use drugs recreationally,” said Ayres. “The vast majority of drug poisonings are being seen in private residences where people are often alone.”
Ayres says the reduction in opioid poisoning deaths is a step in the right direction, but says opioids continue to be prevalent in communities across the province and nation.
Colin Aitchinson, senior press secretary for the Office of the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, agrees.
“The onset of the pandemic had an immediate and unprecedented impact on opioid-related deaths across the country,” Aitchinson said. “Provinces across the country are still in the midst of an addiction crisis (to which) there is no one solution to addressing.”
