By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Lethbridge on track to surpass 2016 Fentanyl related deaths

May 22, 2017 | 7:27 AM

LETHBRIDGE – In the first three months of 2017, the City of Lethbridge counted four Fentanyl related deaths- nearly half the total number of 9 accidental overdose deaths for all of 2016, and those numbers don’t count any other opioid -related deaths.

That’s according to recently released numbers from Alberta Health Services.
 
In its latest report covering Q1 spanning from January 1 to March 31, 2017, AHS says while there has been a slight decrease in the rate of ER visits related to opiod use and substance misuse in the South Zone, the rate is still  24 percent higher than the provincial average.
 
There have been just over 70 visits in three months to hospitals and health centres in southern Alberta for opiod overdoses so far.
 
And between January and the end of March 2017, AHS says there was a 2,867 percent increase in the number of individuals who were dispensed naloxone from community pharmacies in the South Zone.
 
 
Provincial Averages:
 
Alberta Health Services says average income for the highest proportion (35 percent) of those overdosing and dying of opiods including Fentanyl, is between $30,000 and $39,000 dollars in areas where the average income is less than $60,000 per year.
 
The most frequently listed substances on the death certificate of those who died of a drug overdose in 2016 were: fentanyl (42 percent), opioids (40 percent), illicit stimulants (36 percent), alcohol (21 percent), and benzodiazepines (19 percent).
 
61 percent of certified deaths had more than one substance listed.
 
11 percent (49 drug overdose deaths) had both fentanyl and another type of opioid listed.
 
80 percent of deaths due to fentanyl overdoses were among males, between the ages of 30 and 34.   

In total, 113 people died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl in the first three months of 2017, up from 70 deaths in the same period of 2016.