Lethbridge sees highest rate of opioid deaths in Alberta in April 2023

LETHBRIDGE — Alberta set an unfortunate record with 179 opioid deaths in April 2023 -- the most recorded in a single month.

The numbers come from newly released data courtesy of the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System.

Now, the Alberta NDP is calling on the UCP to take action.

"That means six Albertans died a day in April," said Lori Sigurdson, the NDP critic for mental health and addictions.

The UCP says significant strides are being made to develop more recovery infrastructure.

"Our focus as a government over the next couple of years will be to create 10,000 new recovery beds and be able to create space for Albertans facing addictions," said Jason Nixon, seniors, community and social services minister.

Lethbridge fared particularly poorly in the newly released numbers.

Despite only having 20 opioid-related deaths in April, that gave Lethbridge a "deaths-per-100,000-person-years" of 234.0 -- the highest rate of any of the municipalities tracked.

Calgary had the most deaths in the month with 76, but its death rate per 100,000 only came in at 62.8.

The provincial average was 46.6.

For those working in harm reduction in Lethbridge, the news didn't come as a shock.

"It's not surprising at all," said Lori Hatfield, the Lethbridge lead for Moms Stop the Harm.

"If we don't have harm reductions in our community and if we don't have sufficient harm reduction in our community, our numbers will just keep rising."

Lethbridge has also been without a permanent supervised consumption site since the closure of the ARCHES SCS in August 2020.

A mobile overdose prevention service was set up outside the Lethbridge Shelter to provide an alternative until a more permanent solution could be found.

But advocates say the mobile OPS isn't enough.

"It is absolutely not cutting it. We need a supervised consumption site. An OPS site is not meant to be a long-term solution -- it's supposed to be a temporary solution until they find something else," said Heidi Reinke, the Lethbridge program and education co-ordinator for the Alberta Alliance Who Educates and Advocates Responsibly.