色色啦

And the city saw a decline in these deaths last year compared to the year prior 鈥� 463 fatalities from 527.

Similar declines are being tracked elsewhere, including nationally, where opioid deaths dipped by 17 per cent last year compared to the year prior, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Even south of the border, there鈥檚 been a sizable dip in opioid overdose mortality, the article noted 鈥� a nearly 27 per cent decrease in deaths last year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This trend strikes me as news that journalists should continue to track closely. After all, we鈥檙e in the grips of a deadly opioid epidemic that has claimed over 50,000 lives in Canada since 2016.

Mosleh quoted Dan Werb, director of the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, which is run out of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital in 色色啦. The centre conducts research and outreach on best practices in drug policy.聽

Werb said the drug market and techniques and ingredients traffickers are using 鈥� particularly when it comes to producing the often-deadly drug fentanyl 鈥� are responsible for the declining overdose mortality.

Intrigued by this, I spoke with Werb at length on the telephone this week. He told me there鈥檚 been a 鈥渕ajor drop in the concentration of fentanyl鈥� recently in several parts of North America, including 色色啦.

The analysis comes from聽, which Werb helped launch in聽 2019. It began as a project at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. The monitoring service is funded by Health Canada, Ontario鈥檚 provincial government and other sources. Its director is Karen McDonald and Werb is an adviser.

The service is based on the notion that drug users want to know what鈥檚 in the chemicals they鈥檙e ingesting. The service has checked 18,507 samples since launching, 46 per cent of which was fentanyl.

Users voluntarily provide small, 10 mg samples of their drugs to a front-line community health centre here in the city. The sample is then sent to a biochemistry lab, either at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) or St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital.

Samples are analyzed using sophisticated, mass spectrometry, which identifies chemical substances. The information is then provided back to the front-line centre and then on to the drug user. The drug monitoring service operates under a legal exemption provided by Health Canada.

As for fentanyl and the declining opioid toxicity deaths, Werb says the drug checking service found that the median concentration of fentanyl in samples tested 18 months ago was around 5 per cent.

That鈥檚 within the 5 to 7 per cent range the checking service has noted for fentanyl since the service鈥檚 launch, Werb notes.

In early 2023 the median concentration was 8 per cent. However, since October of last year the median concentration was 1 per cent and for 2025 so far, the concentration has hovered between 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent, Werb said.

A direct line can be drawn between these lower concentrations and the recent drop in overdose deaths, he asserts.

His conclusion 鈥斅爐he traffickers and drug dealers are deliberately reducing the potency of their fentanyl.

Why?

Probably because so many users are dying and that鈥檚 bad for business, Werb states bluntly.

Werb told me he is 鈥渢hrilled that we are seeing these reductions鈥� in deaths, but cautions it would be 鈥渇olly鈥� for our government leaders to predicate our response to the fentanyl crisis based on this apparent recipe change.

Fentanyl began flooding the drug market in North America from about 2011 through 2018. Unlike heroin, anyone can produce fentanyl with chemicals and a lab.

Werb said between May and July of 2019, carfentanil, another synthetic opioid like fentanyl, but 100 times more potent, flooded the market. There was a major bump in overdose deaths at that time.

鈥淐arfentanil was introduced in the drug supply chain, presumably experimentally, by drug traffickers, probably to see whether it was a more effective product than fentanyl. But it killed too many people and then carfentanil became much harder to find,鈥� Werb said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a marketing aspect, but also 鈥� in the cold cruel language of these traffickers, what is the acceptable number of deaths among our client base?鈥� Werb added.

Which all comes back to what governments, particularly our provincial government, are doing to combat the opioid overdose crisis, Werb argues.

Ontario banned drug consumption sites located within 200 metres of a school or daycare. To replace them the government is investing $378 million in 19 new HART 鈥� homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs. The provincial funding is also going toward 375 supportive housing units.

But Werb said the province hasn’t kept up in its budgeting for mental health and addictions for Ontario, given the scope of the overdose mortality problem. The provincial budget was decreased or remained static a few years back, when deaths were doubling, Werb said.

This is a complex topic that we all need to keep a microscope on if we want to get out of this opioid disaster.