Drug overdose deaths in Lethbridge have fallen by 90 per cent in the last two years. (Image Credit: (c) Steveheap | Dreamstime.com)

By David Opinko

Zero overdose deaths recorded in Lethbridge in November

Mar 3, 2026 | 11:12 AM

For the fourth time in 2025, there were no recorded deaths due to drug consumption in Lethbridge.

The Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System has been updated to reflect data through November.

There were no fatal overdoses recorded in that month, which also happened in March, April, and July.

2025 has proven to be one of Lethbridge’s best years for drug overdose deaths in the last decade, recording 11 in the first 11 months of the year. The only year to be lower than that was in 2016, when 10 people died.

The city’s peak was in 2023, when officials reported 113 deaths due to overdoses from January to November.

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In just the last two years, that has fallen by 90 per cent.

Drug overdose deaths in Lethbridge from January to November, 2016-2025. (Image Credit: Source: Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System. Compiled by LNN)

As a percentage of the population, Lethbridge ranks virtually tied for the lowest among Alberta’s seven largest cities with Medicine Hat and Fort McMurray.

With a rate of 10.9 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 population, Lethbridge is less than half the provincial average of 22.7.

Rate of drug overdose deaths in Alberta per 100,000 population, Jan.-Nov. 2025. (Image Credit: Source: Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System. Compiled by LNN)

In cases where multiple substances were detected in the victims’ bodies, fentanyl was found in 93 per cent of cases, while carfentanil and methamphetamine were observed about two-thirds of the time.

Provincially, more than three-quarters of fatal overdose victims (75.7%) were men, and the most common age group was 35-39.

You can read the full Alberta Substance Use Surveillance Report online here.