More than 2,200 died of opioids in Ontario last year as numbers trend downward: data

CBC

4 days ago

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More than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids last year, a 15 per cent decrease from 2023, newly released data from the Office of the Chief Coroner shows.
"What goes through my head is a small degree of optimism in the fact that we have seen less people die last year, which is very good, but that's within a context of 2,231 people dying last year," Dr. Dirk Huyer, the province's chief coroner, told The Canadian Press in an interview.
His office had recorded 2,639 opioid deaths in 2023.
"I also have a degree of worry that this is a short interval, for whatever reason that we haven't identified, and that the numbers could potentially get worse again," Huyer said.
The mortality rate from opioid overdoses was 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024. That is down from the peak of 19.4 deaths per 100,000 people at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, when opioids took the lives of 2,880 Ontarians.
Fentanyl and its related substances were found in more than 83 per cent of opioid toxicity deaths, while stimulants were found in 69 per cent of deaths. Prescription benzodiazepines were seen in 45 per cent of deaths last year, a sharp increase from 33 per cent the year before. Non-prescription benzodiazepines were found in 62 per cent of deaths, slightly down from 66 per cent in 2023.
The opioid crisis began to hit Ontario in 2015 and 2016 when illicit fentanyl made its way east from British Columbia. There were 728 opioid deaths in 2015 and by 2018, that doubled to 1,565 deaths. The crisis peaked in the middle of the pandemic.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, declined a request for an interview about opioid deaths in the province. The Canadian Press has asked him on more than a dozen occasions since 2022 to discuss the opioid crisis but he has never agreed to an interview on the subject.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones did not respond to an interview request.
The Ministry of Health said the province is "making it easier for people to break the tragic cycle of addiction by expanding access to safe and comprehensive mental health support."
"Through Ontario's road map to wellness, the government is investing $3.8 billion over 10 years, and $124 million through the addictions recovery fund, supporting 500 new addiction recovery beds, more than 32 youth wellness hubs, over 100 mobile crisis teams, and innovative models of care like mobile clinics," the ministry said in a statement.
Huyer lamented the fact that the province does not precisely know what's behind the decrease in opioid deaths, but postulated that it could be due to a slightly less toxic supply of drugs.
"I wish we knew because then I think everybody would be able to answer the question on where they should be focusing and how to help provide the best for everybody," he said.
Shift in approach to opioid crisis
Other hallmarks of the Ontario opioid crisis remain unchanged. Men account for 75 per cent of deaths, opioids disproportionally kill marginalized people and one in five opioid overdose deaths across the province occurs in the homeless population.
The province has undergone a fundamental shift in its approach to the opioid crisis, which included banning supervised consumption sites it deemed too close to schools and daycares. That legislation came about after a Toronto woman, Caroline Huebner-Makurat, was killed by a stray bullet from a shooting outside one of the sites.
One Toronto consumption site challenged that law in court days before it came into effect on April 1. A judge granted an injunction to allow 10 such sites to remain open while he considers his decision. But nine of the 10 sites had already agreed to transition to the province's new abstinence-based model — homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs — and closed.
The province is investing $550 million to fund a total of 28 HART hubs across Ontario, along with 540 new, highly supportive housing units.
Liberal health critic Adil Shamji, who still works part time as an emergency department physician and was on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic, said he's disappointed in the province's response.
"But there's no level of disappointment that can approach the level of heartbreak that families across Ontario are experiencing," he said.
The new homelessness and addiction treatment hubs also miss the mark, he said.
"They have no new services to offer and in many cases are underfunded, overwhelmed, and at a very immature stage where they're not able to meet the demand," Shamji said.
He said there's a void of leadership on the file.
"When you have the medical condition that touches on so many different people in so many different walks of life, it speaks to the need for a public health response and for leaders to come out with ambition, boldness and with the seriousness that it deserves," he said.
"And we're not seeing that from this government, from the minister of health, from public health or the chief medical officer of health."
The Office of the Chief Coroner reported 197 opioid deaths across the province in April, the most recent data available, but stressed that number is preliminary and will rise since death investigations and toxicology results often taken months to complete.