The number of drug-related deaths in Sask. are set to hit a record this year

It's estimated that more than 400 people may have died from drugs in Saskatchewan this year, compared with a record of about 320 in 2020, according to the provincial coroners office.

And Jason Mercredi,executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR),said the rising wave of drug-related deathswas predictable and preventable.

"We've been warning that this was going to happen," said Mercredi, whose organizationoperates a supervised consumption site, among other health and social programs, in Saskatoon.

"The government kept its current course and priorities and sadly we're going to have over 400 families that have lost somebody in Saskatchewan due to an overdose."

Fatal overdoses

There havebeen 211 confirmed fatal overdoses in 2021, according to data from the Saskatchewan Coroners Service. Another 195 suspected drug-related deaths are under investigation.If all of the suspected cases are linked todrug toxicity, that would mean at least 406 people died from drugs this year.

That compares with 319 confirmed drug toxicity deaths in 2020, with another nine still under investigation by the Coroners Service. That was an increase from 179 people dying in 2019 and 172 in 2018.

"It's really frustrating because you can see that a lot of these are preventable if you invest in harm reduction," Mercredi said.

EverettHindley, Saskatchewan'sminister of mental health and addictions, was not immediately available to comment on the latest numbers.

Mercredi said the most obvious problem contributing to the deadly drug crisis is that there is no safe supply. The second is people don't have a safe space to use drugs.He said the provincial government, which is responsible for health care, needs tofinancially support supervised consumption sites. And he's been advocating for thisfor years.

"We need to stop people from dying."

No deaths, few ODsat supervised site

Mercredi said 415 people used the consumption site in Saskatoon this year. There were more than 3,200 uses (meaning some people came back multiple times throughout the year).

"To date, we've only had four overdoses in our safe consumption site and we've had zero deaths," Mercredi said. He said sites like this can not only test drugs for deadly substances, but can educate people about using safely.

The province has repeatedly refused to put money toward the PHR supervised consumption site,even though its own data shows the spaces like the site save lives and money without risking public safety. Last year, Hindleycited limited dollars and saidthe government chose to focus on broad programming across the province, treatment beds and awareness when considering the drug crisis.

But harm reduction advocates like Mercredi have pointed out the approach isn't working as the number of deaths keep climbing.

"Sites like ours clearly work," Mercredi said. "The only people who are still not fully invested in these are the provincial government, sowe really do need to see them step up."

Mercredi said Prairie Harm Reductionwill once again ask the government for about $1.3 million to operate its supervised consumption site 24/7 in the upcoming budget.

"Our ask has been consistent for the last two years. We're hoping the third time's the charm," he said, noting they've been relying oncommunity fundraisingto staff the site.

"A lot of our energy is spent on trying to get them to fund us and then fundraising, soimagine if we could just focus on service delivery."

Mercredi said the demand on the community organization is also increasing. They've gone from serving 150 cups of coffee a day to 450 at their drop-in centre. He said stable moneycould not only keep the supervised siterunning, but also free up staff to focus more on expanding heath, social and employment programming for people in need.

Saskatchewan's deadliest opioids

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For people planning on using drugs, or people who might be around others using drugs, the provincial government has compiled listsof where to access drug-testing strips andwhere to get take home Naloxone kits.