Fentanyl was responsible for 80 percent of the 3,787 opioid toxicity deaths recorded in Canada during the first half of this year, the country's health agency has reported.

Eighty-two percent of all accidental opioid toxicity deaths in the first half of 2024 involved non-pharmaceutical opioids, according to PHAC data. Most of these deaths occurred in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, which together accounted for 84 percent of fatalities. The majority of deaths were among males (72 percent) and individuals aged 30 to 39 (30 percent).

PHAC noted that fentanyl is increasingly driving opioid toxicity deaths, accounting for 79 percent of fatalities in the first half of this year. This represents a 39 percent increase since 2016, when the health agency began national surveillance of opioid-related overdoses. The synthetic opioid has also been involved in 47 percent of opioid-related emergency room visits in the first half of 2024, a 135 percent rise from 2018, according to PHAC.

However, the opioid-related death toll continued to rise in the province in the following years.

She also highlighted that the vast majority of overdose deaths are not related to prescribed medications or diverted safe supply but to illicit drugs.