Sault Ste. Marie leads province in opioid death rate – again

As the rate of death by drug toxicity has trended down for many communities in Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie's numbers have continued to increase, placing it first in the province for the second quarter in a row.

On Monday, the Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) released its most recent opioid toxicity statistics, declaring Sault Ste. Marie to have the worst opioid toxicity mortality rate in the province, followed by Thunder Bay, Sarnia, and Timmins.

The Sault's rate of 64.2 deaths per 100,000 in Q1 and Q2 of 2024 equated to 24 deaths, said data from the OCC.

Sault Ste. Marie also led the province in opioid toxicity mortality rate in the first quarter of 2024, but was sixth in the province the quarter prior to that. The five communities that had worse death rates in Q4 2023 all improved over the past six months, while the Sault's rate jumped from 49.5 to the current 64.2.

When looking at Algoma in its entirety, including the Sault Ste. Marie data, the opioid toxicity mortality rate is just under 10 deaths per 100,000 people for the months of April to June, which is down from the previous quarter at just over 14 per 100,000.

The Ontario average is just over four deaths per 100,000.

An average of seven people die in the province every day from opioid toxicity, a number that has been steady in 2022, 2023 and so far in 2024. About three out of every four opioid toxicity deaths have occurred among males since the start of the pandemic.

Fentanyl continues to contribute to the majority of opioid toxicity deaths, present in about 76.2 per cent of confirmed opioid toxicity deaths in 2024 to date.