Close to 51,000 Canadians died from apparent opioid toxicity between January 2016 and September 2024, making the unregulated toxic drug supply one of the most pressing health issues in Canada.
For context, that’s nearly 16,000 more Canadians than were killed in the Second World War, and more than double the number of people killed in Canada by AIDS.
The spike in deaths began when the synthetic opioid fentanyl began to appear in illicit drugs sold on the street starting around 2014. Fentanyl can be relatively cheaply manufactured locally and is 20 to 40 times more potent than heroin. The illicit, unregulated supply has only become more unpredictable and deadly
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