Opioid-related deaths in Alberta fell to the lowest level in four years in April, according to data released by the province’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction on Thursday. The new numbers cap off an encouraging start to 2024, silencing, for now, lingering criticisms of the province’s recovery-focused model for combatting addictions.
Across Alberta, there were 90 known opioid-related deaths in April, a nearly 30 per cent drop from March and more than 50 per cent drop from April 2023. This marked the first time since April 2020, just weeks into the COVID pandemic, that the monthly death count dropped below 100.
All 90 of the opioid deaths recorded in April were attributed to non-pharmaceutical opioids, such as fentanyl, heroin and designer street opiates.
April’s numbers keep the province on an encouraging trendline to start the year. Through the first four months of 2024, opioid overdose deaths were just under 30 per cent lower than they were at the same point in 2023.
Neighbouring British Columbia, by comparison, saw a more modest 13 per cent drop in year-to-year deaths linked to unregulated toxic drugs through the same period. In both 2023 and 2024, fentanyl played a role in more than eight in 10 illicit drug fatalities, though an apples-to-apples comparison between the two provinces is challenging as the casualty counts from B.C. don’t distinguish between opioid deaths and deaths caused by other toxic street drugs.
Addictions Minister Dan Williams said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the picture in Alberta in a written statement.
“I am encouraged by the downward trend in the number of opioid-related fatalities,” wrote Williams, adding that every Albertan suffering from addiction deserves “an opportunity to pursue recovery.”
Williams pointed to Alberta’s Virtual Opioid Dependency Program, which provides opioid users with same-day access to opioid agonist treatment medications at no cost, as an essential tool in the province’s arsenal for steering thousands of Albertans toward recovery.
The early numbers from 2024 should quiet criticisms of Alberta’s recovery-oriented model for combatting drug addiction, at least for the time being. Critics of the Alberta model pointed to last year’s record number of opioid deaths in the province as “proof” of the model’s inefficacy, largely ignoring sizeable reductions in fatalities stemming from the abuse of other addictive substances.
Alberta now finds itself in the unfamiliar position of being a social policy trendsetter. Other provinces, including Saskatchewan and Ontario, have followed Alberta’s lead in placing recovery at the centre of addictions policy.
Recognizing the external interest in its philosophy toward combatting addictions, Alberta’s United Conservative Party government launched a new research initiative, called the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE), earlier this year. Williams said in April that, while CoRE is a provincial agency, it encompasses a “national view of how (Alberta) can positively influence the addictions and mental health recovery space.”
Public opinion is also warming toward the recovery-oriented policies championed by the province, even in parts of the country that have historically been permissive of drug use. More than eight in 10 British Columbians, for example, say they favour the recovery model over the provincial status quo of providing drug addicts with safer supplies of their preferred drug.
The newly released data, showing a declining trend in monthly opioid-related deaths across Alberta, should put even more momentum behind the recovery model.
The numbers coming out of Alberta could be especially vexing for B.C.’s NDP government, which has seen its laissez-faire approach toward hard drug use become a major political liability in recent months. In June, David Eby’s government took the uncommon step of publicly rejecting a report from the provincial health officer calling for hard drugs like meth and cocaine to be openly sold at retail stores.
Despite attempting to scale back B.C.’s ruinous experiment with decriminalization, Eby isn’t ready to hop aboard the recovery bandwagon. He recently declined an invitation to speak at the inaugural Policy Roundtable on Substance Prevention, Education and Recovery (PROSPER) Symposium in Vancouver, where counterparts John Rustad (leader of the B.C. Conservatives) and Kevin Falcon (leader of B.C. United) both gave keynote speeches.
While B.C. remains, for now, a holdout, the Alberta model is clearly winning hearts and minds across the country. The encouraging numbers on opioid deaths will only further this trend.
National Post