By Rosalind Russell – Public Health Sudbury & Districts acting Medical Officer of Health and CEO Dr. Mustafa Hirji released some data on opioid deaths last week.
He says most local drug poisoning deaths in the districts are in private dwellings, and it is a misconception that homeless people are the major segment of the population that are lost every year.
He says of suspected drug poisoning deaths from the last three years, 384 took place in private residences and 119 took place in other locations.
He stresses the majority of deaths were among people who had a permanent residence, with 402 housed people dying, 54 deaths among people experiencing homelessness, and 47 people classified as “other.”
Although the number of deaths is a relevant number, he points out there are a great number of additional people who have suffered physical, mental and poverty-related issues as a result of substances.
Dr. Hirji released the information as part of the 2026 budget calling on all levels of government to continue the work in alleviating the opioid crisis in both the Manitoulin and Sudbury Districts.
Dr. Hirji’s report also highlighted a significant spike in overdose deaths within the health region in recent years, which saw deaths rise sharply from 17 in 2016 to 117 in 2020.
Last year, there were 106 deaths, and he says they’ve projected a further drop so far this year.
Although impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have also played a role, Hirji noted that a clampdown on the legal supply of opioids helped kick off the deadly trend of drug poisonings.
“We tried to take some quick-fix action to address it,” he says.
“We decided to really clamp down on the availability of opioids, which is the substance most people were addicted to, and when we eliminated the legal supply of opioids, where people were being prescribed under a physician, people turned to the black market.”
The suspected drug poisoning mortality rate in the districts is 62.2 per 100,000 people, which ranks it No. 3 among health units in the province, behind Thunder Bay District and Northwestern District.
The provincial average is 22.4 per 100,000.
With municipal budget deliberations slated to begin across the districts this month, the agency approved a $32,029,390 budget for the upcoming year.
The budget marks a 3.2-per-cent increase from this year’s budget of $31,036,499.
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