Accidental opioid overdoses killed 23 people in New Brunswick last year

The face of New Brunswick's opioid overdose death toll is primarily male and living in Moncton or Saint John, according to a new report released by the provincial government.

The report, which wasquietly posted under the publications section of the Department of Healthwebsiteearlier this week, says 23 people died from accidental drug overdoses involving addictive opioidsin 2016.

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Opioidsinclude powerful pain medication, such asdilaudidor morphine. The class of drugsalso includes heroin andillicitfentanyl, a syntheticopioidthatcan kill in small doses.

The information was compiled for the federal Public Health Agency of Canada, which reported earlier this week that 2,458 people died from opioid-related overdoses last year alone.

The majority of opioid-related deaths have been in western Canada, where British Columbia has declared a public health emergency to deal with a mounting death toll.

The New Brunswickgovernment plans to release new data onopioid-relateddeaths every three months, as public health officials preparefor illicit fentanyl to grow in popularity.

True toll may be higher

The report says there have were two opioid-related overdoses in the first three months of 2017, including one involving fentanyl.

But autopsies and toxicology tests can take months to complete, meaning the toll is almost certainly higher.

For example, the numbers don't include the death of 35-year-old Ann-Marie Lambert on EsgenopetitjFirst Nation in April.

RCMP seized a blue pill labelled as "Percocet 5" after Lambert's death. Health Canada tests showed the pill contained fentanyl.

Around the same time as Lambert's death, six people in the same community overdosed and survived.

Fentanyl is also suspected in a recent overdose in Bathurst, where police believe the victim took a pill that looked like Percocet but may have been laced with fentanyl.

Most using opioids without prescription

Most of the people who died from opioids in 2016 were men (65 per cent), living in Saint John or Moncton (75 per cent) and aged 30 to 59.

Many mixed opioids with at least one other kind of drug (60 per cent). That could include cocaine or other types of prescription medication.

While most of the overdoses happened in Moncton and Saint John, the Campbellton regionposted the highest mortality rate from opioids, with two deaths.

Decision on naloxone coming

New Brunswick is now starting to follow the lead of provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia by attempting to track non-fatal overdoses in real time, so public health officials know when a spike is happening.

The province is monitoring overdoses by getting data from hospital emergency rooms and paramedics, who track the number of times they use a life-saving opioid overdose antidote called naloxone.

While public health officials have been preparing behind the scenesfor a surge in overdoses, the acting chief medical officer of health couldn't say when the public might see an action plan.

"We're still sort of seeing how well we're doing just collecting the data, analysing it and making sure there's no duplication of numbers and things like that," Dr. Jennifer Russell said.

The next step is deciding whether to increase access tonaloxone, an antidote that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

While most first responders across the province are equipped with the antidote, people without private health ensure must pay $35 per dose at a pharmacy.

Other provinces, like Nova Scotia, have tried to make the drug easier to get in order to try to save lives.

Russell said the province is aware of Nova Scotia's pilot project and has been doing research.

"We're waiting for all of the information that we've been collecting about naloxone to make a decision about that sooner rather than later," she said.

In the past, Health Minister Victor Boudreau has said there isn't enough need to fund the drug.