N.B. opioid deaths involving fentanyl at all-time high, says Public Health

Savannah Awde · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 30, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Laura MacNeill says a regular lawsuit of Avenue B Harm Reduction died from a fentanyl overdose past week.

Those tragedies have become progressively common, the enforcement manager said, noting Avenue B unit person witnessed radical overdose portion sitting successful the Saint John office. 

"We spot these folks, we look astatine their face, we cognize their story," MacNeill said. "We feel connected to them. We privation to assistance them. And erstwhile ... they pass, that is highly hard."

In 2024, fentanyl was detected in 57 per cent of opioid-related deaths successful New Brunswick. In 2023, the almighty opioid was contiguous in 56 per cent of lethal overdoses, according to a study issued this period by Public Health.

WATCH | 'We are responding to overdoses successful our ain office,' harm simplification radical says 

The fig for 2024 translates to 42 of the 78 deaths recorded. Most of those deaths occurred successful radical aged between 40 and 49 years old.

It marks two record years successful a enactment for opioid-related deaths involving fentanyl in New Brunswick. 

"It's an highly toxic cause proviso that we person present successful New Brunswick, and specifically successful Saint John," MacNeill said successful an interview. 

"This is thing we're proceeding and seeing each time connected the beforehand line."

Avenue B has been offering cause investigating connected site and is progressively seeing the beingness of different toxic additives, including the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine. 

Co-occurrence, oregon the beingness of much than 1 drug, is flagged as "of notable concern" successful the Public Health report. 

"Of the 549 evident substance toxicity deaths betwixt January 2020 and December 2024, 2 oregon much cause classes (e.g., opioid, alcohol, benzodiazepines, stimulants, etc.) were contiguous among 501 (91 per cent) decedents," the study says.

"Of the 316 decedents who died from an accidental and pending intent evident opioid toxicity decease since January 2020, 1 oregon much non-opioid cause classes were contiguous among 312 (99 per cent) decedents."

MacNeill says the increasingly toxic cause proviso has meant a emblematic dose of naloxone is not arsenic effectual at reversing an opioid overdose. 

"We person been seeing an summation successful the the complexity of the overdoses that folks are responding to, which means that they are oftentimes requiring five to six doses of naloxone, and each kit comes with three," she said.

Public Health numbers besides amusement organisation of naloxone, a common front-line attraction for opioid overdose, has steadily accrued to 4,215 kits successful 2024.

That's compared to betwixt 2,000 and 3,000 kits successful the anterior 2 years, 634 in 2021, and 146 successful 2020. 

While each idiosyncratic coming into Avenue B has their ain story, MacNeill says galore person fallen into homelessness aft aging retired of authorities care.

She says improving entree to intelligence wellness attraction for this colonisation is captious to reduce opioid deaths. 

"Ultimately they're each people," she said. "They are brothers and sisters and moms and dads."

Health Minister John Dornan believes the province's plan to amended entree to mental wellness services volition yet assistance code opioid deaths. 

"The opioid situation is besides a situation of intelligence health. So we tin seldom tease them isolated and woody with them separately," Dornan said astatine a Thursday event successful Fredericton. 

"We've drafted authorities that allows america to spell successful to assistance stateless radical with the attraction that they request ... Homelessness is simply a large portion of our problem."

Dornan said the attack would not impact involuntary treatment as projected by the erstwhile government. He noted changes to the Mental Health Act, which were passed into instrumentality this month, to improve supervised assemblage attraction plans.