‘The crisis is not abating’: New stats show opioid deaths on the rise in Canada
OTTAWA — Newly released statistics on opioid-related deaths in Canada through the first three months of the year suggest such fatalities are on the rise compared to each of the last two years.
The latest national report tracking deaths linked to the painkilling drugs, released on Tuesday, shows there were 1,036 apparent opioid-related deaths in Canada from January through March 2018.
The figure marks an increase of five per cent from the same period in 2017, and a 44 per cent jump from the first three months of 2016.
At the end of 2017, there were a total of 3,996 opioid related deaths, compared to 3,005 in 2016 — meaning just over 8,000 deaths have been linked to opioids since the start of 2016, leading Canada’s chief public health officer to warn that the opioid “crisis is not abating.”