Sask. sets another record for overdose deaths in 2022

Kayla DeMong and her team at Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) used to test its drugs, wondering if fentanyl would appear.

Heading into 2023, it’s now not a matter of if — it’s a matter of how much.

“At this point, everything we’re testing is coming back positive for fentanyl,” said DeMong Friday, pointing to a toxic supply, which she believes is a main driver of the climbing overdose death numbers, year over year, experienced in Saskatchewan.

DeMong is the executive director for PHR, which is Saskatchewan’s first fully operational safe consumption site, located at the heart of Pleasant Hill in Saskatoon.

In 2022, 421 people in Saskatchewan died due to drug overdose, according to a Thursday Drug Toxicity Report released to the public.

DeMong reminded people that those 421 deaths affected 421 families, and the communities in which the victims lived and came from.

The 421 deaths surpass the 410 deaths in 2021. In 2020, 325 people died due to drug overdose, with figures from last year more than doubling those from half a decade ago, with 172 overdose deaths recorded in 2018.

In the last nine years, Saskatchewan has seen an increase in overdose deaths.

According to statistics provided by the Saskatchewan Coroners Service, 2014 was the last year the overdose crisis didn’t worsen, going from 88 in 2013 to 85 the year following.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Saskatchewan now has had well over 1,000 overdose deaths in the province.

For the Coroners Service itself, a small silver lining — the increases in overdose deaths aren’t in the hundreds this time around.

“I think the positive thing out of the statistics is the amount of increase is decreasing quite substantially. Rather than seeing 100 or 150 cases increase every year, we’re only up about 15 cases over last year,” said Chief Coroner Clive Weighill Thursday.

The Coroners Service made two recommendations to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Thursday, along with the Ministry of Health.

It follows an investigation into the death of a man who overdosed after receiving medical care.

The recommendations urge the SHA to consider implementing a formal protocol between Regina hospital emergency departments and brief and social detox services, to provide an avenue for admittance if a person is requesting entry to a detox centre when they are released from care.

Weighill also recommended the SHA review its protocol for providing naloxone kits to people treated for drug toxicity or addiction when they are released from care.

Meanwhile, for DeMong, any increase in overdose deaths is a loss.

“I think any increase is concerning, whether its one person or five people or 20 people. If those numbers aren't going down, it means that we are failing our community,” she said.

DeMong’s PHR isn’t the only safe consumption site operating in the province, Regina’s Newo-Yotina Friendship Centre also operates, but it does not have the capabilities Saskatoon’s offers. It lacks an inhalation room, which would allow users the ability to smoke their supply, rather than injection.

Neither are funded by the provincial government, with PHR declined in the past four budget cycles by the provincial government, including tiered asks which would have allowed it to open at different times during the day, or on a 24-7 basis, which is needed, according to both sites.

“We’re already preventing multiple overdoses in a week — imagine what we could do if we were open longer,” said Teresa Innis, the Friendship Centre’s executive director.

Both PHR and the Friendship Centre said it plans to apply for funding in the upcoming budget cycle.

Meanwhile, in response to two overdose deaths due to fentanyl in Swift Current in late 2022, the provincial government said it plans to earmark $470 million in funding for mental health and addictions in this upcoming budget cycle.

“Any loss of life due to an overdose is tragic and we extend our sympathies to anyone who has lost a loved one to a drug overdose,” read a Wednesday statement from the ministry of health.

“The Government of Saskatchewan is concerned about the increase in overdoses and the impact on individuals, families and communities. We are committed to finding solutions to address this complex issue with our partners to make our communities safer.”

Swift Current RCMP, meanwhile, said overdose deaths in the community began slowly, with one in 2020, rising to six by the end of the last calendar year.

On some occasions, Staff Sgt. Evan Gordon said it’s already too late to use the life-saving drug naloxone when responding to overdoses.

Back in Saskatoon, DeMong said she fears the worst when looking to the future.

With an increasingly toxic supply entering Saskatoon — from what DeMong sees on the frontline — she said she worries that without immediate and concrete action on the file, overdose deaths will continue to climb well into 2023 and beyond.

- With files from CTV News Regina’s Brendan Ellis