Drug overdosed deaths continue in Toronto, three more lose lives

Durham regional police tweeted to say: "3 sudden deaths occurred overnight & are suspected drug overdoses."

According to 680 News, three men were found to be suspected drug overdosed out of which one person was from Bowmanville and other two from Ajax.

Const. George Tudos was quoted as saying: "The coroner has requested a post-mortem to be conducted. At this point we know they are drug-related overdoses and we suspect that it may be fentanyl."

Several drug overdosed deaths has occurred in recent times which prompted Toronto to take the decision of setting up three safe injection centres with an aim to curb the loss of lives.

In the last week of July, twenty people were reportedly overdosed with the drug intake while four others died in downtown Toronto.

Apart from the safe injection centres, the city will also have pharmacies with nalaxone, an antidote to neutralise overdoses.

The death has prompted police to issue a public alert.

Though the number of deaths were lesser than the figure recorded by Vancouver in June, people who deal with drug problems do not want to take the matter lightly.

In June, Vancouver registered 25 deaths due to drug overdoses.

Jason Altenberg, program director at Toronto's South Riverdale Community Health Centre was quoted by CTV News: "The number of deaths in the last week or two alone due to any single cause would be considered a public health crisis anywhere."

Altenberg also considered the social geography as a reason for lesser number of deaths in Toronto compared to Vancouver. He cited the lower concentration of poverty in Toronto as a reason behind the number.

"In Toronto, we don't see the same concentration of poverty and drug use in one postal code or neighbourhood" he said.

Speaking about the decision to create injection centres, Altenberg said: "When we first decided that we needed supervised injection services, we didn't have this level of crisis....The three clinics that will host safe injection sites, including South Riverdale, were approved based on data collected in 2012."

Though the actual reason is not yet confirmed, the police last time also opined the death may be linked to heroin laced with fentanyl.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Image: CitiesSpeak/Creative Commons.