Opioid-related deaths continue to rise, most are accidental says new federal report

Fentanyl

Opioid-related deaths continue to rise, most are accidental says new federal report

More than 11,500 Canadians died of an opioid-related overdose between January 2016 and December 2018, and a majority of those were accidental, according to a new report from the federal government.

National Report: Apparent Opioid-related Deaths in Canada was released Thursday, which says there were 3,017 deaths in 2016, 4,100 in 2017 and 4,460 in 2018.

And as the number of overdoses rose, so did the number of accidental deaths.

In 2016, officials determined 88 per cent of opioid-related deaths were accidental, which rose to 91 per cent in 2017 and 94 per cent in 2018.

“These data indicate that the vast majority of apparent opioid-related deaths were of individuals who did not intend to die,” reads the report.

“For example, the high percent of unintended deaths reinforces the concern that a variety of street drugs are tainted with toxic substances, such as fentanyl, without the knowledge of the people consuming them.”

The report also found a majority, 75 per cent, of those who died were male, though that does vary by province.

B.C. (80 per cent), Alberta (76 per cent), Ontario (73 per cent) Quebec (75 per cent), and Nova Scotia (68 per cent) had a majority of deaths involve males, while in Saskatchewan (58 per cent), Manitoba (56 per cent), Yukon (50 per cent) and New Brunswick (43 per cent) it was more evenly split between males and females.

Fentanyl is also becoming more frequent, as 53 per cent of deaths involved the drug in 2016, which jumped to 73 per cent by 2018.

Western Canada and Ontario are the two most affected areas as there were 1,525 deaths in B.C. in 2018, 775 in Alberta and 1,471 in Ontario.

By comparison, there were 95 deaths in Saskatchewan, 62 in Manitoba, seven in P.E.I., five in the Yukon and two in the Northwest Territories.



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