Needle debris. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Fentanyl deaths up in Lethbridge this year, SCS visitation down significantly

Sep 23, 2020 | 2:32 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Government of Alberta’s new Opioid Response Surveillance Report is showing changing numbers for deaths related to fentanyl and other illicit substances.

It should be noted that this report is for the second quarter of 2020 (April 1 to June 30, 2020) but some charts will show the first two quarters combined for year-to-date statistics. During this time, Lethbridge’s Supervised Consumption Site was still open.

In the second quarter, there were 284 apparent unintentional poisoning deaths related to fentanyl in Alberta, about 82 per cent of which occurred in the province’s six largest cities.

For the first half of this year, the highest number of fentanyl-related deaths occurred in Calgary and Edmonton, but the South Zone had the highest rate per 100,000 residents at 23.1 (36 deaths). The provincial average was a rate of 18.6.

In Lethbridge, 21 people died as a result of overdosing on fentanyl in the first two quarters of this year. There were 16 fentanyl deaths for the entirety of 2019, 25 in 2018, and 15 in 2017.

What's Happening in Lethbridge this week: November 4-10, 2024

Nov 04, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this week: October 28-November 3, 2024

Oct 28, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this week: October 21-27, 2024

Oct 21, 2024

In many cases where a person died from overdosing on fentanyl, there was at least one additional substance detected in the victim’s body. Across Alberta, methamphetamine was found 58 per cent of the time and cocaine was detected in 30 per cent of cases.

For opioids not including fentanyl, one person in Lethbridge died so far this year.

So far this year, Chinook Regional Hospital has seen 1,784 emergency department visits related to opioids and other drug use, making up about four per cent of all visits. There were 117 EMS responses related to opioid events in the city, which is higher than the rate in 2019 but lower than in 2018.

The second quarter of 2020 saw just 12,101 visits to Lethbridge’s Supervised Consumption Site, then-run by ARCHES. This is a significant decrease from almost every quarter over the last two-and-a-half years.

For context, there were over 67,414 visits to the SCS in the final quarter of 2019, which was the busiest quarter the site had ever seen.

The full Opioid Response Surveillance Report can be found online here.

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)

(Government of Alberta)