Canada records almost 50,000 deaths from fentanyl since 2016
Al Jazeera
The highly addictive opioid is behind an increasing number of deaths in Canada, according to the government.
Fentanyl is increasingly behind opioid overdose deaths in Canada, according to new government data.
The national health agency on Monday reported that nearly 50,000 people in the North American country died from opioid overdose deaths from January 2016 to June 2024.
During that period, fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid sometimes prescribed for pain relief, accounted for 49,105 of the deaths.
Meanwhile, the proportion of fentanyl deaths has increased, according to the data, accounting for 79 percent of opioid deaths so far this year. That is a 39 percent increase since 2016.
The data was released just weeks before United States President-elect Donald Trump is set to enter the White House.
