“Worst summer we’ve ever seen”: Ottawa harm reduction group reporting recent rash of overdoses

By Alex Black

A local harm reduction group is reporting a recent rash of overdoses in Ottawa.

Ottawa Inner City Health chief executive officer (CEO) Wendy Muckle told The Rob Snow Show, with guest host Derick Fage on Aug. 22, that this summer has been the worst they've ever seen for overdoses, not just locally, but across Canada. 

“If you look at the data from right across Canada, you see that overdoses and overdose death, which is how we measure overdoses, has gotten worse through the years of COVID, and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of settling down,” Muckle said. 

Muckle added it's not just opiates, as they are seeing more and more overdoses other forms of drugs that have been laced. 

“This is no longer an opiate crisis,” Muckle said. “We have a crisis in the stimulant market and in the cannabis market.”

Muckle said we need a regulated safe drug supply, along with better prevention solutions and increased treatments surrounding mental health.

“There's not enough being done, you know, helping people learn how to stay safer as they navigate this increasingly treacherous illicit drug market,” Muckle said. “I feel sometimes like our system is still sniffing daisies and in a reality that's not the gritty reality that we see on the streets of Ottawa.”

Meantime, new preliminary data from Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner shows opioids killed nearly 2,800 people in the province between April 2021 and this past March, a two per cent hike compared to the first year of the pandemic, and a large leap from 2019, when more than 1,500 people died of opioids.

Rob Boyd, the director of the Oasis program at the Sandy Hill Community Centre, told The Sam Laprade Show on Aug. 23 that the affordability housing crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have only exasperated the opioid crisis in Ottawa, and the city has seen a rise in overdoses compared to last year.

Boyd said since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are roughly 100 opioid overdoses a year compared to 35-40 before the pandemic. 

“The pandemic just made things worse,” he said. “At the same time, the drug supply has change drastically over the past five years. It's a different world.”

Listen to the full interview with Wendy Muckle below:

Listen to the full interview with Rob Boyd below:

 

 

 

 

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today