Saskatchewan overdoses on the decline, province now monitoring benzodiazepines | Globalnews.ca

Overdose rates are down in 2024 compared to 2023, but the Saskatchewan Coroners Service is now keeping track and reporting on a drug that’s been around for decades.

So far this year, there have been 233 confirmed and suspected overdose deaths. In 2023, there were 462 according to the coroner’s office.

Benzodiazepines are now being monitored by the province, providing more detail to the public on overdoses in your community.

Benzodiazepines are a class of medications that slow down activity in the brain and nervous system. The chart currently shows zero deaths.

Global News reached out to the coroners service but were told they can’t make any comments during the writ period.

The Newo Yotina Friendship Centre offers free drug testing and said they saw a spike of benzodiazepines mixed with fentanyl and opioids in the summer months.

“Probably about 90 per cent of all the fentanyl that we’re testing has a trace of benzodiazepine,” Emile Gariepy with the centre said.

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Gariepy said benzos aren’t as lethal as fentanyl but it’s still risky because it makes naloxone less effective.

“We noticed the drugs that have benzodiazepine or xylazine in it that we’re needing multiple doses of naloxone (to help them),” he said.

On Friday, the federal government announced the emergency treatment fund — a $150 million fund that will help municipalities, First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities address the opioid crisis.

“It will provide assistance to where it will make the most impact and help support a wide range of projects and services to respond to the urgent situation being faced on the ground,” Ya’ara Saks, the minister mental health and addictions, said Friday.

Saskatchewan is also working to battle the crisis as it began offering take-home drug testing kits in 2021. Those kits can be picked up at 30 different pharmacy’s across the province.

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Saskatchewan battles record overdoses amid high addiction service wait times

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