{"id":568,"date":"2021-02-05T22:58:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T22:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=568"},"modified":"2021-02-05T22:58:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T22:58:19","slug":"opioid-related-deaths-increased-because-of-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/02\/05\/opioid-related-deaths-increased-because-of-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Opioid-related deaths increased because of COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has exerbacted many ongoing problems, and the ongoing opioid crisis in Ontario is no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New numbers indicate a sharp increase in opioid-related deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a November 2020 report from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/-\/media\/documents\/o\/2020\/opioid-mortality-covid-surveillance-report.pdf?la=en\">Ontario Drug Policy Research Network<\/a>, opioid related deaths shot up 38.2 per cent in the first 15 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average of 46 deaths weekly.&nbsp;&nbsp;The report estimates that if deaths continued on the same upward trajectory, deaths could reach 2,271 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To compare, the report stated that 1,512 people died of opioid related deaths in 2019. From 2019 to 2020, deaths rose 50 per cent.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, a news release from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/en\/about\/blog\/2020\/opioid-related-deaths-during-covid-19\">Ontario Public Health<\/a>&nbsp;states that opioid-related deaths increased by 40 per cent since the start of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;These numbers indicate a large jump in deaths over the recent years. Another report from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/-\/media\/documents\/O\/2019\/opioid-mortality-surveillance-report.pdf\">Ontario Drug Policy Research Network<\/a>&nbsp;states that between June 2017 and July 2018 there were 1,337 opioid-related deaths in the province.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/JRN305-graph-1024x630.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/JRN305-graph-1024x630.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/JRN305-graph-300x185.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/JRN305-graph-768x473.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/JRN305-graph.jpeg 1056w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has created circumstances that have made people more likely to use drugs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An article from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.ctvnews.ca\/toronto-paramedics-responded-to-record-breaking-number-of-opioid-overdose-calls-friday-1.5289237\">CTV News<\/a>&nbsp;explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic people have been forced into isolation,&nbsp;&nbsp;and many are using drugs when they are alone.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The numbers from the report support this. According to the 2020 report, three-quarters of opioid-related deaths happened&nbsp;&#8220;when no one was present to intervene&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this CTV article Nirmala Rangia, the \u201cfounder of the Chopra Addiction and Wellness Centre in British Columbia\u201d explains that \u201cAddiction is about isolation. It\u2019s about shame.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has exerbacted many ongoing problems, and the ongoing opioid crisis in Ontario is no exception. New numbers indicate a sharp increase in opioid-related deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; According to a November 2020 report from&nbsp;Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, opioid related deaths shot up 38.2 per cent in the first 15 weeks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}