‘We’re losing people we love’: Frontline staff alarmed after seven suspected overdose deaths in Kingston, Ont.
Health officials in Kingston, Ont. are raising the alarm after an increase in suspected overdose-related deaths.
They say it’s part of a pattern, and something needs to be done to combat the growing trend.
On Thursday, Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health released a statement warning a toxic batch of illicit drugs is making the rounds in the city, and warned of a growing number of overdoses and deaths.
Justine McIsaac, the safe consumption site services coordinator with Kingston Community Health Centres, says their numbers show there have been seven suspected opioid related deaths in the last 13 days alone.
“We’re dealing with a very toxic drug supply in the community right now. We have had a staggering number of overdoses in the community,” McIsaac explains. “We’re responding to multiple on site a day.”
She says the numbers are increasing.
“You could compare this to April of last year and we did not have that many deaths in a month, let a lone a week and a bit,” McIsaac explains.
The drugs are believed to be cut with things like fentanyl, which experts say is up to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Public health is encouraging people to carry naloxone kits and say not to use alone.
“We’re losing people we love and care about,” says McIsaac. “People in this community are being ripped apart by grief and tragedy.”
Susan Stewart is the chair of the drug strategy advisory committee with KFL&A Public Health. She says opioid-related drugs overdoses and deaths have seen a dramatic rise since the start of the pandemic across the province.
“This is a silent epidemic,” she says. “We’ve had more people who have died from accidental opioid poisonings than we have had due to COVID.”
Stewart says the best way forward is a review of policies by all levels of government.
“Decriminalizing personal amounts of substances I think is an important step forward and would send a strong message to those in the community who use drugs that we know this is a health issue, not a criminal issue,” she says.
McIsaac agrees, and says policies are failing those who are most vulnerable.
“We’re losing young lives that deserve far more than what we have given to them.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.