Rising OD deaths call for better policies for 20-30-year-olds: study

A new study calls for targeted harm reduction policies after finding that a quarter of deaths among people in their 20s and 30s could be from opioids by 2021.

The annual number of opioid-related deaths in Canada will double to 6,200 between 2019 and the end of 2021, according to University of Toronto researchers.

They noted a sharp increase among 30-year-olds on the Prairies — a five-fold increase in Manitoba, almost a three-fold increase in Saskatchewan and a more than two-and-a-half-fold jump in Alberta.

The researchers noted that this increase coincided with pandemic health measures that reduced access to harm reduction programs and imposed border restrictions that could increase toxicity in the drug supply.

Senior author Tara Gomez said the sharp increase means provinces need to act more quickly to combat overdose deaths.

The researchers also analyzed opioid-related accidental deaths in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as the Northwest Territories.

The study was published today in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

This Canadian Press report was first published on April 15, 2024.

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