As drug deaths climb, advocates hope Manitoba NDP victory brings harm reduction supports

Overdose awareness advocates say they're not surprised to learn Manitoba recorded 44 drug-related deaths in May — but hope more supports to help prevent those deaths will soon be available under the province's new government.

"This is sort of in a way what I've been advocating for. This is where my advocacy has led me," advocate Arlene Last-Kolb said Wednesday, a day after an election that brought the NDP to power in Manitoba.

Last-Kolb, with the group Moms Stop the Harm, said she hopes the NDP makes good on its past promise to support the opening of at least one supervised consumption site in Manitoba — something the outgoing Manitoba Progressive Conservative government has long opposed.

"I knew that the PC government would never change their mind with harm reduction," said Last-Kolb.

"We know what to do here. We just were never given the opportunity."

According to data released by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Tuesday, Manitoba saw 44 drug-related deaths in May of this year — the highest monthly number since at least January 2022, which is as far back as the province's monthly preliminary data is available online.

Numbers like that show how important supporting a harm reduction approach is, said Last-Kolb.

"It's incredibly sad that this keeps happening," she told CBC on Tuesday, after the medical examiner's data was released.

"[But] I'm not surprised."

Breda Vosters, who works with the non-profit Resource Assistance for Youth, said a few factors likely contributed to the high number of deaths, including a naloxone shortage and the strength of drugs.

Last spring, community organizations and pharmacies said they were running low on injectable naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose and is normally available in free kits through a government program.

Vosters said that shortage is continuing, forcing organizations like hers to ration the number of kits they give out.

"Our stocks are getting lower and lower and … we're not able to keep up with demand," she said Tuesday afternoon.

And with substances on the streets becoming stronger, Vosters said each overdose intervention usually requires both injectable naloxone and nasal naloxone kits, the latter of which aren't available through the government program.

"They're getting stronger and stronger and the interventions aren't being able to keep up," Vosters said, adding that fentanyl is a major contributor to overdoses. That drug was involved in 25 of the 44 deaths in May, according to the provincial data.

But like Last-Kolb, Vosters is optimistic the election of an NDP government will mean more supports to prevent overdoses.

"We need to support every kind of intervention that we can," said Vosters. Increased availability of detox beds, improved access to rapid access to addiction medicine (or RAAM) clinics, and supervised consumption sites are among her hopes for the new government.

A supervised consumption site "would be a really strong step, and I think community would be able to jump on that really quickly and get something in place within a handful of months, if not sooner," she said Wednesday.

In the meantime, Vosters and Last-Kolb said it's likely that Manitoba will have recorded an even higher number of drug-related deaths in the summer months.

"It's not going to go away," said Last-Kolb.