MEDICINE HAT, AB — In 2017, just under 4,000 Canadians died from an overdose, and this year, the country could exceed that number.
Overdose is the leading cause of death in Canada for people between aged 30-39.
Medicine hat has seen a spike in opioid related deaths after five people have died in a 10 day span.
The city continues to see a rise as the death rate has doubled since 2016-17.
Corey Ranger, clinical lead with HIV community link, says the South Zone reports 23% higher than the provincial average for emergency visits.
Ranger says it’s happening because the drugs on the street are getting more toxic.
“There isn’t necessarily a good batch for street drugs right now. What they’re finding from drug testing through urban areas across Canada is that most heroin that people think that they have contains fentanyl and carfentanil,” said Ranger.
Ranger says it’s important to push to try and break the misconceptions around the opioid crisis.
“There’s a lot of people in our community who are really hurt by all of this crisis that’s happening. We’re getting calls from concerned family members, from friends, from clients, from service providers who are feeling burnt out,” said Ranger. “That’s because they’re on the front lines and they’re on the front lines
and they’re actually seeing this crisis happen.”
Work continues on opening a supervised consumption site here in the city.
