Opioids have killed or harmed more Albertans than ever before.
According to data released by the government, drug poisoning deaths reached an all-time high in the province last year.
A total of 2,051 Albertans were killed by drug overdoses in 2023, with opioids being the primary culprit, accounting for 1,867 of those deaths.
Hunter Baril, press secretary to Alberta’s Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, Dan Williams, said that the number of people losing their lives to addiction was concerning.
“The loss of any life is an absolute tragedy. We offer condolences to the families, loved ones, and communities of those who have been impacted by the addiction crisis,” said Baril.
While 2023 saw Alberta hit a record number of deaths, an intensified drug recovery approach could be showing promising signs early this year.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the downward trend in the first two months of 2024. February of this year shows a 33% decrease in fatalities compared to February of last year and is the lowest number of all substance fatalities in nearly four years,” said Baril.
In January and February 2024, 254 Albertans died from drug poisonings, down from 309 in the same period in 2023. This is a further decrease from the 365 Albertans who died from drug poisonings in the first two months of 2022, which was an increase from 271 in 2021 and 125 in 2020.
The decrease could be due to Alberta’s recovery-based approach, which Baril said is focused on a system of care to support everyone in their pursuit of recovery. The United Conservative Party has emphasized a recovery-oriented system of care over so-called safe supply.
Alberta has opened two treatment centres in Red Deer and Lethbridge over the last year. The provincial government is building nine more of these facilities, five in partnership with Indigenous communities provincewide.
“We provide immediate, same-day access to life-saving treatment medication through the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program. Nowhere else in the world is there this level of access to evidence-based opioid agonist therapy,” said Baril.
Despite the early signs of progress in 2024, the opioid crisis remains severe and continues to worsen.
Of the 254 Albertans who died from drug poisoning in the first two months of 2024, 237, or 93.3%, were opioid deaths.
An equal 93% of all drug poisoning deaths involved fentanyl. Multiple drugs can be involved in one death; therefore, drugs present during death are not mutually exclusive. Methamphetamine was present in two-thirds of all drug poisoning deaths.
While the number of deaths is down for the first two months of 2024, the percentage of total drug poisoning deaths that resulted from opioids has reached a record. The number of opioid deaths as a percentage of total drug deaths is the highest for the first two months of the year since the data began being tracked in 2016.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith previously warned about safe supply drugs seeping into the province’s black market.
This followed the Liberals denying Alberta’s request to track safe-supply drugs being sold on the streets with a “unique chemical identifier.” The Alberta Recovery Model seeks to focus on long-term recovery for the province’s addiction and mental health system.