From the Calgary Herald. The numbers come amid a push from UCP members to end public funding for supervised consumption site.
Published Nov 05, 2023 • Last updated Nov 05, 2023 • 2 minute read
Through eight months of 2023, Alberta and Calgary are experiencing the worst drug poisoning death rates on record and are on track for their deadliest year in history, according to new provincial data.
The numbers come amid a push from UCP members to end public funding for supervised consumption sites.
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New data published this month by the province showed an additional 147 people died of toxic drug overdoses in August, making it already the province’s third-deadliest year to date. The province has already lost 1,262 people in 2023 to opioids.
Alberta’s rate of drug poisoning deaths — 41.1 people per 100,000 — is significantly higher than recent years. The province previously hit a record-high rate in 2021 (36.7 per 100,000), which dropped slightly in 2022 to 33.3 per 100,000.
Alberta’s death rate for 2023 brings it close to those seen in British Columbia, which routinely experiences the highest death toll at the hands of drug poisoning in the country. The more densely populated province is so far seeing a death rate of 45.3 people per 100,000, according to figures updated on Nov. 1.
Calgary is similarly experiencing one of its deadliest years on record.
The city has lost 458 people to opioids this year, nearing last year’s total of 478 people and 2021 record of 503 deaths.
Calgary’s death rate is also significantly higher than the provincial rate, reaching 47.3 people per 100,00 through the first eight months.
Lethbridge soars past record for deadliest year
Meanwhile, the toxic drug crisis has already hit new deadly heights in Lethbridge.
The city of about 104,000 has already lost 94 people to drug poisoning through the first eight months, blowing past last year’s record 77 deaths.
Those numbers put it at a death rate of 137.5 people per 100,000. The southern Alberta city has consistently posted above-average death rates since 2020.
While the largest portion of deaths routinely occur in private residences, the new data also show drug poisoning deaths are more frequently occurring in public. Thirty-eight per cent of deaths happened in public from April to June this year, provincial data show, while 40 per cent happened in private residences.
It’s a stark contrast to the previous quarter, when 23 per cent of deaths occurred in public and 46 per cent were in private residences.
UCP members vote to end funding for supervised consumption sites
Members at this weekend’s UCP annual general meeting voted in favour of a resolution calling on the current government to end provincial funding for supervised consumption sites.
The non-binding motion called the sites “a failed experiment” that fail to combat drug addiction.
Supervised consumption sites offer clean drug-use equipment and other services, such as drug-checking technology which allows users to check the contents of their drugs.
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