More than 1 in 4 deaths among young people in Canada were opioid-related in 2021, study finds

Opioid-related deaths doubled in Canada between 2019 and the end of 2021, with Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta experiencing a dramatic jump, mostly among men in their 20s and 30s, says a new study that calls for targeted harm-reduction policies.

Researchers from the University of Toronto analyzed accidental opioid-related deaths between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2021 in those provinces as well as British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories.

Manitoba saw the sharpest rise in overdose deaths for those aged 30 to 39 — reaching 500 deaths per million population, more than five times the 89 deaths per million population recorded at the beginning of the study period.

In Saskatchewan, the death toll for that age group nearly tripled to 424 per million, up from 146 per million, while Alberta's rate spiked more than 2.5 times to 729 fatalities per million, up from 272 per million. Ontario's death rate reached 384, up from 210 per million.

B.C., which has been the epicentre of the overdose crisis, recorded 229 deaths per million for that age group in 2019, climbing to 394 in 2020. All data for 2021 from that province's coroners service was not yet available when researchers completed their work based on information collected by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Nationally, the annual number of opioid overdose deaths surged from 3,007 to 6,222 over the three-year study period, which researchers note coincided with pandemic public health measures that reduced access to harm reduction programs and imposed border restrictions that may have increased the toxicity of the drug supply.

"In addition, for many, the pandemic exacerbated feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and loneliness, contributing to increased substance use globally," they said.

The study was published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Senior author Tara Gomes said one in four deaths involved people in their 20s and 30s. More than 70 per cent of the overall deaths were among men.

A spokesperson with the coroners service in B.C. said 78 per cent of people that fatally overdosed in that province between 2019 and the end of 2021 were men.

The sharp surge in fatal overdoses — especially among young adults on the Prairies — suggests provinces must act quickly, said Gomes, an epidemiologist who called for more harm-reduction services including supervised consumption sites.

"Being slow and not being as nimble as we would like to be in our responses can have really devastating impacts," said Gomes, also lead principal investigator of the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network.

Bernadette Smith, Manitoba's minister of housing, addiction, homelessness and mental health, said the province plans to open its first supervised consumption site in Winnipeg next year and will also offer drug-testing machines so people can check if their illicit substances are toxic.

"We came out of a previous government that didn't take a harm-reduction approach, unfortunately," said the New Democrat, whose party defeated the Progressive Conservatives last fall.