Toronto issued 3 overdose alerts this summer. Advocates are alarmed, but say the trend isn't new

Toronto Public Health has seen a rise in opioid-related emergency calls this summer, prompting three drug alerts and heightened concern among the city's medical professionals.

The latest alert was on Sept. 7, after the city recorded 11 suspected fatal overdoses in the previous week alone — representing double the weekly average. It's a local snapshot of a phenomenon a new report released last week shows is occurring across the province and even throughout Canada, with drug overdose deaths on the rise since the start of pandemic.

"We are in a drug toxicity crisis," said Dr. Shovita Padhi, the city's associate medical officer of health.

"We continue to monitor through our drug checking services and encourage people to have their drugs checked, but right now, there's nothing ... that we can determine at this point in time that's driving these increased calls."

Advocates say while the public health alerts may speak to a jump in overdose deaths in recent weeks, the issue of contaminated drug supply is not new. And until all levels of government commit to funding more harm reduction services and long-term policy changes, they say the opioid crisis will continue to worsen.

Nat Kaminski is the president of the Ontario Network of People Who Use Drugs, a provincial association that aims to shape drug policy. As a harm reduction worker in the GTA, Kaminski says governments need to "act swiftly" in the face of all of these deaths.

"Until we have something other than a poisoned drug supply to offer people who use drugs, and more funding and supports and services available in every city, we will continue to see people ... die," said Kaminski.

"We need more allies. We need more advocates. We need more funding."

In Toronto, deaths have been rising, albeit unsteadily, in recent years. According to the city, preliminary data for 2022 shows that there were 508 deaths due to opioid toxicity in Toronto, compared to 590 the year before, representing almost a 100 per cent increase from 2019.

Padhi says Toronto Public Health is drafting a mental health and addiction strategy to "tackle this crisis from different facets" and is continuing to advocate for supervised consumption services. It's also requested the federal government to decriminalize all drugs for personal use and shield young people from criminalization within the city. 

In recent years, Ontario has mandated naloxone kits — medication that can reverse an opioid overdose — at high-risk workplaces, and launched a $90 million addictions recovery fund that runs until 2024. 

Similarly, the federal government, in its latest budget, said it would invest $46.2 billion for provinces and territories to provide Canadians with "access to timely, equitable mental health and substance use services."

Karen McDonald, team lead at harm reduction program Toronto's Drug Checking Service, says the main thing driving overdose deaths is the "contaminated" as well as "toxic and unpredictable" illicit drug market.

McDonald says samples from the black market increasingly show a combination of high-potency opioids, inconsistent dosages and other central nervous system and respiratory depressants mixed in. The free and anonymous service has checked over 5,000 drug samples since opening in 2019.