The Saskatchewan Coroners Service has released its report detailing drug toxicity deaths as of Dec. 2, 2021. Confirmed overdose deaths total 211 so far; suspected (but not yet confirmed) deaths are at 195. Although the numbers are still subject to change, this would combine for 406 deaths.
By contrast, last year’s drug toxicity deaths currently stand at 319, with nine cases still being investigated. Confirmed overdoses for previous years are as follows:
- 2014 – 85
- 2015 – 121
- 2016 – 109
- 2017 – 119
- 2018 – 172
- 2019 – 179
The numbers for the last three years are still being investigated and may change up or down by a few cases. However, there are not enough cases still undetermined to significantly alter the clear upward trend of overdose deaths in Saskatchewan.
Suicide by overdose is relatively low: for 2018-2020 combined, suicide by overdose accounts for 66 deaths.
Jason Mercredi, Executive Director at Prairie Harm Reduction, which operates the province’s first safe consumption site, told MooseJawToday.com that the increase in deaths is not due to deliberately riskier behaviours by users. Instead, it is because of changes in the supply chain that are making drugs more dangerous.
“It’s not that people are using more – people are using similar amounts, sometimes even less,” Mercredi said. He explained that fentanyl and benzodiazepines – both of which suppress respiratory and heart function – are being mixed into drugs without the users’ knowledge.
One scenario Mercredi outlined is that of a casual cocaine user who uses cocaine only on the weekends or at parties. That user may have built up a tolerance for cocaine, but that tolerance does not extend to fentanyl. Fentanyl can be 50-100 times more potent than morphine: even trace amounts can be lethal. If fentanyl has found its way into a user’s supply without them knowing, overdosing is easy.
“We’re seeing that not just with street drugs, you know, we’re seeing it with the party drugs,” Mercredi said. “Cocaine, ecstasy, Xanax, these are coming off the dark web into the province, and we’re seeing people die as a result.”
The Saskatchewan Coroners Service report lists accident as the predominant cause of the majority of overdose deaths. Hydromorphone, known by its brand name Dilaudid, accounted for 197 accidental overdose deaths in the three years from 2018-2020. Other drugs involved in accidental overdoses in the same three years, including codeine, morphine, oxycodone, and methadone (mostly used for treating addiction, but capable of being abused), accounted for 301 deaths together.
Fentanyl varieties took 420 lives through accidental overdose in 2018-2020. The numbers show that fentanyl is rapidly taking over these statistics. For example, in 2019 acetyl fentanyl – which is 15 times more potent than morphine – killed 10 people. In 2020 that number increased to 142.
Mercredi added that there are several possibilities for the dangerous mixing of fentanyl and benzodiazepines into otherwise known street and party drugs. Dealers could be counting on the greater addiction potential of fentanyl to hook users into buying more. And, obviously, there are no lab controls or regulations in the illegal drug trade.
The same machine that used to mix a batch of heroin laced with fentanyl could then be used to load ecstasy pills. Carfentanil can be 100 times as potent as regular fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine – meaning that even traces of it can be lethal.
“One great thing that the province did was to make take-home testing strips available across the whole province,” Mercredi noted. He added that a multi-pronged strategy is needed with many different approaches, and drug testing was an important one.
The province has now made take-home drug testing strips available at local pharmacies across Saskatchewan. A full list of pharmacies is available on Saskatchewan.ca. In Moose Jaw, testing strips are available from Crescent View Clinic at 131 1st Ave. NE.
The strips contain instructions for testing and can inform users whether the street or party drug they are planning to take contains either fentanyl or benzodiazepines.
