Windsor-Essex in crisis with 24 opioid-related deaths in 2015, says health unit

The increasingnumber of opioid-related deaths in Windsor-Essex is a crisis that needs immediate attention, say officials from the region's health unit.

Overdose deaths linked toopioidsincreased over eight years to a level of 1.7 times greaterthanthe provincial average in 2015, according to the latest figures released Thursday.

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"We are working with our community partners on a strategy to come up with strong recommendations to deal with the opioid crisis we have in our community," saidDr. Wajid Ahmed, associate medical officer of health for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

The numbers were revealed in an OpioidMisuse inWindsor-EssexCounty Report, which analyzed statistics from emergency department visits and hospital admissions.

The figures also include people who used codeine, fentanyl, heroin, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine and oxycodone.

Opioids were givento 27,984 people in Windsor-Essexthrough the Ontario Drug Benefit in 2015, according to the report.

24 Windsor-Essexopioid users died in 2015

The increasingnumbers were alarming enough for the health unit to start work on a opioid strategy in December. The process has been slow, explained Dr. Ahmed, but officials want to have a thorough plan in place.

"We want to make sure we have a comprehensive strategy and we're not just trying to fix the problem ... by putting onband-aids," he told CBC News.

Emergency departments in Windsor-Essexsaw 382 opioid-related visits in 2015, with men aged 20-44 making up nearly half of the patients.

Statistics from the report show the greatest density of opioid users were in the downtown cores of Windsor and Leamington.

Nineteen people in Windsor died after using opioidsin 2015 and fivedied in EssexCounty in that same year.

LaSalledrug forum discussed fentanyl

LaSalle police warned opioid drug use among teens had become an epidemic during a public forum Tuesday night.

• LaSalledrug forum alerts community on dangers offentanyl

Const. Al Gibson, who has been on the force for two decades, said he hadn't seen officers arrest young people under the Mental Health Act until a few years ago. Now such arrests are common.

"They are now using the likes of prescription pills, fentanyl we're getting into deep problems with meth and it just seems to be a growing epidemic within the younger generation," he said.