Ottawa man charged with manslaughter after woman’s fatal overdose

Police charged a man with manslaughter in connection with the death of a 20-year-old who died years ago.

Officers with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry detachment of the provincial police said they responded to a home in South Stormont Township in October 2022. There, they found a 20-year-old woman unresponsive; she was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

A postmortem exam determined she died from an opioid overdose.

Since then, police have been investigation under the direction of the OPP criminal branch, into the source of the drugs.

Officials were able to laid charges against a 22-year-old man from Ottawa on Feb. 27. He is being charged with manslaughter and trafficking (two counts) a Schedule I substance.

He remains in custody following a bail hearing and appeared in a Cornwall court.

High-potency additives to opioids

An increasing number of overdose deaths in Ontario involves the use of more than one drug, with the combination of opioids and stimulants proving to be especially dangerous, a report notes. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, attributing deaths to two or more substances rather than just one drug has become more common, research from the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network and Public Health Ontario shows.

From 2018 to 2022, the monthly rate of overdose deaths involving one substance increased by 75 per cent, deaths involving two substances increased by 167 per cent, while the rate of deaths involving three or more substances increased by 186 per cent, the report released reads.

The researchers found that 12,115 accidental overdose deaths across the province were directly attributed to opioids, stimulants, alcohol and benzodiazepines during that time frame.