The Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services harm reduction van will be at the Jack Axes parking lot every Thursday afternoon led by a team of nurses with safe drug use supplies. (Darryl Murphy/CBC) More than 100 people have died of an overdose in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2023, according to the latest data from the province's chief medical examiner — a sharp rise from previous years that's prompting public health workers to find new avenues reducing harm for drug users. So far this year there have been 31 drug toxicity deaths in the province, according to the newest numbers from the office of the chief medical examiner.
In 2023, 74 people died — a steep rise from the 37 total deaths in 2022 and 36 deaths in 2021. The rise in overdose deaths is prompting advocates for safer drug use to reach out to the community for help. The Safe Works Access Program in St.
John's distributes supplies needed for using drugs, like clean needle and naloxone kits, and educates people on how to spot and reverse an opioid overdose. Program manager of the Safe Works Access Program, Emily Wadden, says an increasingly toxic drug supply has made overdoses more common. (Ted Dillion/CBC) Emily Wadden, SWAP's program manager, points to an increasingly toxic drug supply as the reason drugs are killing more people.
She said potent drugs such as fentanyl are easier to transport over to the island, as they're smaller in size and much stronger than traditional opiates. A rise in overdoses in recen.