Suspected opioid overdose deaths grew in 2020

City police say 37 people died this year from suspected or confirmed opioid poisonings in their patrol area, surpassing last year’s record 30 deaths.

City police patrols the City of Peterborough as well as Cavan Monaghan Township and Lakefield.

Sandra Dueck, spokesperson for city police, released the data to The Examiner on Wednesday.

Peterborough was believed to have the third-highest rate of opioid poisonings per capita in Ontario in 2019, behind Brantford and St. Catharines.

This year that crisis appears to

be deepening, city council heard from Peterborough County-City Paramedics Chief Randy Mellow in November.

Paramedics have been responding to three to six calls daily over suspected drug poisonings, he told councillors — which he said is an increase somewhere between 33 and 50 per cent, compared to 2019.

Also in November, a new provincial study suggested the local death rate nearly doubled in the first four months of the pandemic — though medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra cautioned the study took into account both suspected and confirmed deaths and the data may change once coroner’s investigations are complete.

Yet Salvaterra has said she’s deeply concerned that Peterborough is “a hot spot” for opioid poisonings.

One risk factor is using drugs alone, she said at a press briefing in early June: her comment came after two people had died alone in their homes from suspected drug poisonings on the same day in late May.

“So using (drugs) at home is a serious risk — and not using alone can be an important lifesaving measure,” Salvaterra said at the time. “If you do know someone using drugs, please check on them.”

Meanwhile Peterborough lacks a supervised drug consumption and treatment centre, but could get one soon.

It was announced in early December that applications had been submitted to both Health Canada and to the province to allow services to be added to the city’s new opioid addiction help centre on Simcoe Street. The centre has been located at the former Greyhound bus station at 22 Simcoe St. since the start of October.

The program provides sterile drug-use equipment and distributes naloxone to people at risk for overdose.