At least 3 suspected drug overdose deaths in Cambridge in January

At least three people died ofsuspected opioid overdoses in January, according to regional police.

Waterloo Regional Police Servicerespondedto 81 suspected overdoses last month. Cambridge had all three fatal suspected overdoses as well as 31 non-fatal, while police responded to 35 non-fatal overdoses in Kitchener and 12 in Waterloo.

Overdose deaths are considered "suspected" until they have been confirmed by the coroner's office, which can takeup to 12 months.

WRPSraised warningsin January after responding to 37 suspected drug overdoses in just eight days.

Meanwhile, there were 102 overdose related calls to 911 in January, up slightly from 97 in December, according to the Waterloo Region Integrated Drugs Strategy. This includes data from police and paramedics, though many overdoses are not actually called into 911.

The strategy reports naloxone,the overdose-reversing drug, has been administered 19 times so far this year.At this point in 2020, it had been used nine times.

'There's no end in sight'

Michael Parkinson with theWaterloo Region Crime Prevention Council said COVID-19 has made things worse.

He said the calls to stay home and stay apart have led people to overdose alone and support organizations have had a harder time providing services.

"We're seeing direct service agencies just get crushed by overwhelming demand," he said. "In the meantime, people are very much losing their lives, sometimes in shelters, sometimes in private residences."

Parkinsonsaid the pandemic has proven governments can act quickly. He wants to see an "urgent and proportional response to the scale of the crisis,"mentioning safe supply programs in particular, which providenon-contaminated drugs for people who use them.

"Each time that there's a data release, it's worse than the previous time," he said. "There's no end in sight for 2021."

In 2020,98 people are suspected to have died of drug overdosesin Waterloo region,a steep increase from previous years. In 2019, there were 63 suspected overdose deaths and in 2018 there were 61.