Record-breaking 1,758 Albertans died of a drug poisoning in 2021

Late Thursday, the Alberta government updated the Substance Use Surveillance System, a dashboard that tracks drug poisoning deaths in the province, to include statistics from November and December.

In both months, 176 Albertans died of a drug poisoning, the highest monthly totals ever recorded since the province began tracking numbers in 2016. This brings the total number of Albertans who have died in 2021 to 1,758.

It was already known in late 2021 that it would be a record-breaking year, when at the time 1,372 deaths had been recorded between January and October, surpassing 2020’s total of 1,358 drug poisoning deaths.

Of the 1,758 Albertans who died in 2021, 1,602 were specifically of an apparent opioid-poisoning, or 91 per cent.

There were 171 apparent opioid-related deaths recorded in November, and 175 in December, the highest ever in a single month.

At a press conference Friday morning in Medicine Hat, associate minister of mental health and addictions Mike Ellis said the numbers are “bleak”, but that’s the same case across North America.

He said that numbers “in Vancouver itself are disproportionately higher than it is here in Alberta.” In 2020, B.C. reported 1,767 drug poisoning deaths, while in 2021, there were 2,224. This is an increase of 25.8 per cent.

In comparison, Alberta reported 1,358 deaths in 2020, and with 1,758 deaths in 2021, there was an increase of 29.4 per cent.

Ellis said the province has a plan, including addressing waitlists, expanding treatment spaces, and providing opioid agonist therapy.

“It’s a very, very complex problem,” he said. “There’s no one single solution to this and it is not one or the other.”

Policy ‘making the situation worse’: critics

NDP mental health and addictions critic Lori Sigurdson said the “heartbreaking” numbers show that supervised consumption services need to be expanded, and the province needs to offer drug testing and safe alternatives to the toxic drug supply.

“It’s just so clear, the evidence is so clear, that their policies, their attack on harm reduction is not helping. And that’s exactly what’s needed. They’re just going in the completely wrong direction and people are dying,” Sigurdson said.

At the same press conference, Dr. Nathaniel Day, medical director of the virtual opioid dependency program with Alberta Health Services, said the COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on the death rates.

“We in our own program have tracked very substantial differences and the drugs people are using, reporting to us and when they’re coming in during COVID versus before COVID,” he said. “We know that there’s some complicating factors.”

Elaine Hyshka is an assistant professor in the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health said the death rates have been spiralling out of control for the last two years.

“In Alberta, things are getting dramatically worse here and we’re closing the gap with B.C. and everywhere else where things are very bad,” she said in an interview.

“We’re heading very much in the wrong direction, and certainly, the pandemic is a factor across the country that has increased drug poisoning deaths. But the reality is, we’re also making many policy choices here that are making the situation worse.”

Record numbers in Edmonton, Calgary

The province’s two largest cities also saw record-breaking numbers in 2021.

Edmonton continues to see the highest number of deaths in the province. There were 72 drug poisoning deaths were reported in November, the highest ever the city has seen in a single month. Seventy deaths were reported in December. In 2021, a total of 666 Edmontonians died.

For apparent opioid-related deaths, 68 were recorded in the city in November, and 70 in December, again, the highest death toll seen since 2016.

There was a total of 618 apparent opioid-related deaths last year.

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For apparent opioid-related deaths, there were 53 reported in November, and 55 in December, a record. A total of 498 Calgarians died from an apparent opioid poisoning.

For total drug poisonings, Alberta’s death rate had an average of 38.9 per 100,000 person-years in 2021. In Calgary, the average was 39.5, while Edmonton and Lethbridge had the highest average death rates, at 63.3 and 68.9 respectively.

If you or someone you know is using substances, do not use alone. If you are using alone, you can contact the National Overdose Response Service at 1-888-688-NORS for support, or download the BRAVE or DORS app.