Drug and Alcohol Overdose Deaths Nearly Doubled in Ontario During Pandemic: Study

Evidence bags containing fentanyl are displayed during a news conference at Surrey RCMP Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Sept. 3, 2020. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

The number of accidental drug and alcohol deaths nearly doubled in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study shows.

The study, released on Sept. 14, found that almost 3,000 people died from drug or alcohol toxicity in 2021, compared to nearly 1,600 people in 2018.

The research, conducted by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (OPDRN) and Public Health Ontario, says the figure equates to eight deaths every day in 2021.

“This report shows the extent to which substance-related harms have worsened during the pandemic,” said senior author Tara Gomes, a principal investigator of the ODPRN, in a news release on Sept. 15.

Ms. Gomes, who is also an epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says it is also during the pandemic, for the first time, that the number of deaths involving multiple substances “surpassed deaths” from one substance alone.

The findings were based on data obtained from ICES, a non-profit research institute formerly called the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, from the Office of the Chief Coroner, and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the report said.

The study analyzed data from 2018 to 2021. It found opioids, such as fentanyl, accounted for over 85 percent of the nearly 9,000 accidental deaths from substance-related toxicity during that period. In 2021 alone, the percentage stood at nearly 83 percent in the province.

Researchers noted that although opioids were directly responsible for the vast majority of alcohol and drug toxicity deaths, the number of people who died from cocaine, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepine use has also increased in recent years.

Deaths from alcohol toxicity in Ontario increased by 15.6 percent between 2018 and 2021, with almost 300 people killed during that period. The majority of cases involved other substances. Only 25 of these deaths involved only alcohol.

The study warned that using multiple drugs has been associated with worse outcomes compared to the use of only one type. The practice of combining substances not only heightens the risk of death, it also makes it difficult for toxic reversing agents such as naloxone, which only reverses the effects of opioids, to work effectively.

The study showed that between 2018 and 2021, the deceased were predominantly male (74.6 percent). The median age of all accidental deaths was 40 years old.

“[T]hree-quarters of incidents occurred in a private residence,” the report added.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.