The opioid death crisis in Canada: crucial lessons for public health

The current opioid mortality crisis constitutes a much greater challenge than the crisis of the early 1990s, because it involves a vastly larger population at risk and the availability of more hazardous drugs. Both crises show that at-risk users primarily require protection from hazardous drug products. However, this observation has not been acted upon and many people involved with non-medical opioids continue to rely on supplies that are unregulated and toxic. This is likely to result in substantially more deaths. Our understanding of science and medicine should improve the nature and implementation of practical public health interventions and the consequential protection of human health over time. Therefore, it is time for the opioid death crisis in Canada to be tackled better, and not worse, than the “very real and very serious” drug death crisis in the 1990s.