Record year for overdose deaths
Niagara among top municipalities for opioid deaths last year
In addition to the sickness and death the COVID-19 virus has brought to the region, Positive Living Niagara executive director Glen Walker believes the pandemic has also contributed to a record number of fatal overdoses.
Based on preliminary data, he said 169 Niagara residents died in 2020 from suspected opioid overdoses.
“It’s a record, obviously,” said Walker, co-chair of the Overdose Prevention and Education Network of Niagara (OPENN).
He said the figure puts Niagara among the top five municipalities in the province for opioid deaths last year.
Although Niagara Region Public Health has yet to provide statistics for the full year, a recent report said overdoses had claimed the lives of 96 people by August. In comparison, 89 people died of overdoses in all of 2019, and overdoses also claimed the lives 89 people a year earlier.
“The numbers just keep growing for us,” Walker said. “It’s crazy.”
And those increases are occurring despite initiatives to help prevent overdoses, including the regionwide distribution of naloxone kits, as well as at the Consumption and Treatment Services supervised injection site Positive Living Niagara operates in St. Catharines that has continued operating throughout the pandemic lockdowns.
Walker said the majority of deaths — about 78 per cent — have occurred in private residences, as people use opioids such as fentanyl while alone due to physical distancing and self-isolation requirements.
Despite a 25.3 per cent increase in calls to Niagara EMS for possible overdoses between
2019 and 2020, reported by Niagara Region, Walker said selfisolation means paramedics are often being called too late to be able save the lives of patients.
“They’re getting to people when they’re in more dire circumstances. They require more to bring them back out of their overdose or they’ve already passed away,” Walker said.
Walker said people have also been mixing opioids with prescription antidepressants, and the addition of the stimulants is “making it harder for us to bring people back using just naloxone.”
He said workers at the supervised injection site have also found resuscitating people more difficult because of the use of antidepressants and opioids.
Meanwhile, he said the poor quality of available street drugs has also been adding to the death toll.
“If we only had a regulated supply, we wouldn’t have these issues,” he said.
Walker suggested decriminalizing possession to encourage users to come forward, coupled with providing prescriptions for safer, less potent opioid substitutes as a way to save lives.
“It makes a lot of sense, and the federal government is piloting some of that right now across Ontario and other parts of Canada — trying to get a sense of if we prescribe an opioid to someone that we know is safe they won’t be overdosing for starters,” he said. “You’re also in a position where you’re talking to the person, you’re seeing them every day — very much like the CTS (Consumption and Treatment Services) site.”
From there, he said, it can lead a person towards receiving treatment they need to ultimately overcome addiction.
“We lost 169 people last year. If we’d have been able to supply them with something under a physician’s care, we probably wouldn’t have lost any of them.”