Manitoba opioid-related deaths increase nearly fivefold between 2019 and 2021: report

Opioid-related deaths increased nearly fivefold in Manitoba between 2019 and 2021, according to a new study that is calling for enhanced harm reduction policies throughout the country.

University of Toronto researchers investigated accidental opioid-related deaths in nine Canadian provinces and territories — including all three on the Prairies — with Manitoba seeing the most severe rise in overdose deaths among those aged 30 to 39.

Nearly 500 deaths per million population were recorded in Manitoba in the 30 to 39 age group at the end of 2021 — more than five times the 89 deaths per million population from the start of the three-year study period.

The province had 54 opioid-related deaths in 2019, but that figure jumped nearly fivefold to 263 by the end of 2021, according to Monday's report from the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Across the country, opioid-related deaths more than doubled during the study period — from 3,007 to 6,222 — with one-quarter of the deaths among younger adults.

Researchers said the surge in deaths coincided with pandemic health measures that reduced access to harm reduction programs and imposed border restrictions that may have increased the toxicity of the drug supply.

Tara Gomes, an epidemiologist, was the study's senior author. She said Monday that fentanyl and fentanyl-type opioids strongly contributed to those deaths. She said the numbers in Manitoba are especially frightening.

"I think that there's a real acceleration happening in Manitoba right now that's incredibly concerning," Gomes said.

Province has duty to address opioid usage: minister

The provincial government has taken steps to address the rising opioid crisis, which includes earmarking $2.5 million in this year's budget toward a supervised consumption site. The site will provide sterile needles and other consumption equipment, with staff on hand to help in the event of an overdose and to connect users to support services.

Manitoba Minister of Housing, Addictions, Homelessness and Mental Health Bernadette Smith got emotional Monday discussing the personal impact drug overdoses have had on her.

"It hurts my heart. I mean, those are people. Those are someone's loved ones. I alone lost my brother-in-law. I lost two cousins last year. This is hurting people, this is hurting families, this is hurting communities," Smith said with tears in her eyes.

"We have a duty and a responsibility to do something about this."

She stressed the importance of coming together collectively as a community.

"This report calls for a harm reduction approach and that's exactly what our government is doing. So a supervised consumption site, drug testing machines, that's our first step. Getting those up and running, that's what we've been told by the organizations, the groups and the folks with lived experience," Smith said.

There has been outcry that the province isn't moving quickly enough, but Smith said stakeholders have stressed the importance of getting it right over expedience. 

"We're working in support of community, with community, also with federal and municipal partners to make sure that what we're doing and the approach that we're taking is the right approach," she said.

And that includes working closer with front-line organizations.

'Every Manitoban is impacted by this crisis': Levi Foy

Sunshine House works on the ground with people who use opioids. 

The lone mobile supervised consumption site in Manitoba is run out of Sunshine House's RV, which provides harm reduction supplies and free drug testing to Winnipeggers.

Executive director Levi Foy called the information in the report "tragic."

"There's just no words to describe the tragedy that lays behind that," he said Monday on Up to Speed.

But Foy isn't surprised by the report's findings, except for the age range of those with increased opioid usage in the province.

"I think one of the highlights from that report is the age group and those that are impacted. Those are not folks that we typically work with in our day-to-day operations at the mobile overdose prevention site, but it still points to how pervasive, how wide scale and how every Manitoban is impacted by this crisis," he said.

Foy, who has also lost family members to drug overdoses, said Gomes's characterization of opioid usage in the province as an accelerating crisis is spot on. He said drug checking is important, among the preventative measures that needs to have a wider reach, particularly in rural communities.

"What we're seeing on the ground is just the erraticness of supply," he said.

"In 2019 to 2021, fentanyl was really the thing. In the last couple of years we are still seeing the same levels of fentanyl but we're also seeing a lot more different types of substances such as benzodiazepines, which are much more trickier to respond to because they don't respond to [naloxone] in the same way that fentanyl does."

Foy says there's a serious gap in harm reduction services but he's optimistic the province will keep working toward ensuring that more lives aren't lost to opioid usage.