Hamilton: Better or Worse? Drug deaths

The majority of drug deaths in Hamilton are still being caused by opioid overdoses.

About 40 people in Hamilton die each year from drug overdoses, and from 2010 to 2012, about three quarters of those deaths were caused by opioids like heroin, oxycodone or fentanyl.

Thats up from 2008 and 2009 when only about half of all drug deaths were caused by opioids.

Recently a batch of extremely lethal heroin circulating in the city has caused a slew of deaths, and has pushed police and public health to implement a heroin possession charge amnesty and to push new overdose prevention kits to curb the deaths.

Admission rates for local opioid withdrawal programs are now the second highest in the province, behind only northern Ontario.

In 2002, one in ten people who entered a withdrawal management program at St. Josephs Healthcare were opioid patients. In 2012, its one in four. The number of female opioid withdrawal patients at St. Joes is now more than double the provincial average.