Northern Ontario police say most drugs come from the south, prescription pills still fueling the crisis

Police services across northern Ontario say most illicit drugs circulating in their communities are being transported from southern parts of the province, while prescription drugs diverted into the illegal market continue to pose a serious and ongoing threat.

Several police forces in the north say their investigations consistently point to southern Ontario, particularly the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as the main source of illicit drugs entering the region.

Brad Reaume, a detective with the North Bay Police and head of its street crime team, explains drugs like fentanyl and cocaine are rarely produced in northern Ontario. Instead, they are manufactured in larger metropolitan areas where precursor materials are more readily available and then transported north.

"The drugs are being brought in primarily from southern communities like the GTA and that's where we're finding the majority of the cocaine and the fentanyl that we're locating and seizing," he said.

Greater Sudbury Police Detective Staff Sgt. Darin Heffern said their drug seizures and trafficking investigations point to the same supply chain.

"Generally speaking, drug traffickers themselves are transporting the drugs in vehicles, up the corridor towards all the northern communities. That's what we're noticing," Heffern said.

Drugs are most often transported north by vehicle, though mail delivery has also been used, according to both Sudbury and North Bay police.

Both police forces warn that young people from southern Ontario are often recruited to transport those drugs.

"[Traffickers] use these guys to traffic drugs because they may not be on the radar as much," Heffern said

"[Drug traffickers] are aware that someone who's young... may not be prosecuted to the same level as an adult or they're young and don't have a criminal record yet or their drivers license is still intact."

While illicit drugs dominate the illegal market, prescription medications remain a significant factor in opioid-related deaths in the province and represent a second, persistent supply stream feeding northern Ontario’s opioid crisis, Reaume explained.

"Typically prescription drugs are not thought of as a cause of concern for our communities. I mean, they're prescribed," he said.

Over the past three months there were 627 suspected drug-related deaths in Ontario, according to a report prepared by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network using data from the Office of the Chief Coroner. 

The report states prescription opioids, not containing fentanyl, are responsible for one in five opioid toxicity deaths across the province.