Preventable Deaths

"These are unimaginable tragedies and, make no mistake, an overdose death is a preventable death."
John Tory, Toronto Mayor

"What we're hearing is that there are people overdosing regularly on the street."
"It seems to be increasing."
Shaun Hopkins, manager, The Works, needle exchange

"There's people OD'ing in the hallways here left, right and centre."
"People are dropping dead for $20 [price of a heroin hit]."
"It's ridiculous."
Moss Park recovered addict

Many, but not all, of Ontario’s opioid-related deaths have taken place in lower-income neighbourhoods like Toronto’s Moss Park. Laura Pedersen/National Post/File

A still unidentified woman overdosed near Toronto's Moss Park in the stairwell of an apartment, last week. It's a safe bet she was far from whatever could be considered her original home, a lost soul, addicted to drugs, living off the street, just like thousands of others in Canada's cities. In the week just passed, however, six people died in Toronto of suspected Fentanyl-related overdoses.

City Hall in Toronto was the site of an emergency meeting with first-responders: police, paramedics, the fire department and representatives from public health all in attendance. Exchanging experiences, thoughts and frustrations, but clearly no one knowing exactly how to move forward from this expanding crisis, reflected in cities everywhere in North America, with Vancouver representing the worst-case scenario in Canada.

There are never any shortages of vows by public officials to accelerate efforts in prevention and overdose treatments. More training for city staff, wider distribution of Naloxone kits -- and a stepped-up opening of planned supervised injection sites which supporters are convinced help immensely to persuade users that they can continue their fatally addictive habits in a safe environment overseen by prepared-to-react health professionals.

The contents of a drug overdose rescue kit at a training session on how to administer Naloxone. (Carolyn Thompson/AP Photo)

In the first four months of 2017, no fewer than 101 people died of Fentanyl-linked overdoses in the city of Vancouver, while British Columbia in its entirety saw 935 people expiring from opioid overdoses in 2016. Figures for 2015 in Ontario show that 734 people died from opioid-related causes, according to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network. This represents the deaths of two people daily, with 253 of those deaths taking place in Toronto.

Over 80 percent of the deaths were deemed to have been accidental, most of them occurring in lower-income neighbourhoods of which Moss Park is one, in the city of Toronto. And as far as health professionals and social workers are concerned the problem is getting more out of hand with each passing day, as Fentanyl becomes more commonly encountered.

And nor are the overdose concerns concentrated just among street users. Recreational users from all walks of life are increasingly vulnerable. They are sufficiently alert and determined not to succumb, to acquire Naloxone kits, but in the communities in which they move, fewer people are likely to recognize the symptoms of overdose and how best to respond.