COVID-19 pandemic having ‘stark affects’ on opioid-related deaths in Alberta

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Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/7354089/alberta-covid-19-pandemic-opioid-related-deaths-increase/amp/

COVID-19 pandemic having ‘stark affects’ on opioid-related deaths in Alberta
By Caley Ramsay Global News
Posted September 23, 2020 5:15 pm EST

The number of people who have died of opioid overdoses in Alberta between April and June this year is more than any three-month period recorded in the last four years, and the province says the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in the increase.

The province released new numbers Wednesday which show 301 people died of an unintentional opioid poisoning between April 2020 and June 2020 — after the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Previously, the highest number of opioid-related deaths recorded in a three-month period in Alberta was 211, according to numbers in the province’s Q2 Opioid Response Surveillance Report which date back to 2015...

 

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Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/alber...-call-for-more-safe-injection-sites-1.5132391

Alberta city struggling with surge in opioid deaths as advocates call for more safe injection sites
Melanie Nagy
Vancouver Bureau Chief, CTV National News
Brooklyn Neustaeter
CTVNews.ca Writer
Published Sunday, October 4, 2020 10:00PM EDT


TORONTO -- With at least three people dying every day, the opioid crisis has claimed more lives in Alberta than COVID-19.

While B.C. has been hit the hardest with more than 1,000 opioid-related deaths this year, Lethbridge, Alta. has seen the highest per-capita rate of overdoses amid the pandemic, and the community is struggling to find a solution to the crisis.

Tim Slaney, a long-time harm reduction advocate and organizer of the Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society, says the opioid situation has become "really dire" in the city after the government closed the city's Supervised Consumption Site in August.

"We are three times higher than the provincial average and the government is responding by closing services," Slaney said in an interview with CTV News...