911 opioid overdose calls spike in Hamilton in March

Emergency calls to 911 for overdoses in Hamilton rose last month, spiking to 32 calls in March compared to 21 in February, according to statistics from the city.

Opioid use, overdoses and deaths continue to be an issue of concern in Hamilton. Between Jan. 10 and March 26, paramedics responded to 77 calls about opioid overdoses. 

The average age of people in those cases was 36, with 79 per cent of them being men.

• Hamilton commits to opioid surveillance and monitoring system
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The city has begun posting data about opioid use in Hamilton on its website, and also updating previously reported data, and what is emerging as it works with health and emergency services to get that data is a more accurate picture of what's going on locally.

Emergency department visits in the city for overdoses rose last fall, too. There were 42 overdose hospital visits in Hamilton in October and November, and 40 in December — compared to 24 in September.

The city lists them as opioid "poisonings" in its data, which refers to specific overdoses diagnosed by physicians after admission to or treatment at hospital.

That's only a portion of the overall hospital visits for overdoses from various drugs in the city. From March 20 to 26, 44 people went to local emergency departments for drug misuse or overdoses, but that number includes overdoses for drugs other than opioids.

In response to the rise in opioid use and deaths in Hamilton and across Canada, the city has launched an opioid surveillance and monitoring system in an attempt to manage the problem.

There have been more opioid-related deaths in the Hamilton LHIN over a five-year period than anywhere else in the province, according to a recent study from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

The report also shows that the Hamilton LHIN (which includes Niagara, Haldimand and Brant) had the highest number of opioid-related hospital admissions and emergency department visits in the entire province in 2014.

Those kinds of numbers show the gravity of the situation — as does the emergence of carfentanil in the city.

It would take several doses of naloxone to reverse the effects of carfentanil, which is 10,000 times stronger than heroin. Even tiny amounts are deadly — so deadly that police have advised people to not even touch the substance if they see it.

It's so potent that emergency room staff wear face masks, shields, gloves and gowns to treat patients suspected of using the drug.

Even more recently, the city has been warning people about "takeover" — a mixture of crack cocaine and fentanyl.

"Reports are that this drug is causing an immediate and dangerous loss of consciousness," the city said in an alert.

"This drug was reportedly brought from Toronto and is becoming widespread in Hamilton."