REGINA - According to the Saskatchewan Coroners Service (SCS), the number of confirmed deaths by drug toxicity has gone down significantly between 2023 and 2024.
The report said in 2024, there were 218 confirmed deaths by drug toxicity, while in 2023, there were 422.
In terms of dropoff, accidental deaths were down from 397 (2023) to 203 (2024), which is a nearly 50 per cent decrease. The drug which caused the most accidental deaths in 2024 (124) was Para-fluorofentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Meanwhile, Acetyl-fentanyl caused 45 confirmed accidental deaths in the same year.
There are also unconfirmed numbers of drug toxicity deaths, which are suspected to be 128, in 2024 which is up from a suspected 37 in 2023.
If both confirmed and suspected numbers were combined, SCS’s report suggests that 2024 could have a total of 346 deaths by drug toxicity compared to potentially 459 in 2023.
