Weekend drug overdoses rise in Ottawa Part of ongoing national crisis

Ottawa police say nearly two dozen people suffered medicine overdoses on the weekend in the country’s capital.

The Ottawa Police Department says it has responded to 19 medicine-related overdoses on Saturday and three more on Sunday morning.

Police say aid workers and civilians administered naloxone, a medicine that in many cases reverses an opioid overdose.

The most recent data from Ottawa Public Health shows there were 117 emergency hospital visits due to opioid overdose in May, the highest number since July 2020.

July 2022 saw some of the worst results in recent years, with five people dying of suspected opioid overdoses in just one week and 98 people hospitalized during the month.

Neither the police nor Ottawa Public Health would immediately say whether there were any emergency hospital visits or deaths related to the weekend overdoses.