By declaring a toxic drug crisis epidemic this week, the Greater Sudbury Police Board is seeking to secure funding for services to help reverse recent trends.
There were a reported 134 suspected drug toxicity deaths in Sudbury and Manitoulin districts last year, which is on par with recent years but far exceeds the pre-pandemic 79 recorded in 2019.
Last year alone, 16,458 grams of drugs were seized by Greater Sudbury Police Service members.
During Wednesday's police board meeting, two medical leaders at Health Sciences North provided additional context, with Addictions Services medical lead Dr. Tara Leary counting 25,000 in-patient days associated with substance use at the hospital last year alone.
“That’s not just people presenting intoxicated or in withdrawal, that's people presenting with the medical fallout from substance use acute and chronic, the psychiatric complications of prolonged substance use as well as substance use itself,” she said.
There are 2,500 emergency department visits related to substance abuse each year, which she notes is seven per day and every 3.5 hours.
“Alcohol accounts for almost half of our hospitalizations, and really, like many chronic illnesses it’s because of a lack of community treatment,” she said.
As for overdoses, she noted that it’s not a problem confined to the city’s unhoused community as some public misconceptions might imply, with three quarters of overdose deaths taking place at the victim’s legal address where they receive mail.
Although medical professionals can stabilize patients, there aren’t enough community supports in place to help them maintain a healthy path forward, and Leary said that one-third of people who make emergency department visits related to substance abuse are back within 30 days.
“No matter the substance, no matter the age, we need to implement preventative measures across the spectrum,” she said, later clarifying that a significant gap is in services for those below the age of 16.
Flagging a lack of services for youths as particularly troubling, Mayor Paul Lefebvre asked, “How are we going to reverse the curve that we’re seeing?”
“We need to sit down and talk about it,” Leary answered.
Although early transitional housing efforts with wraparound medical supports have proven effective, Mental Health and Addictions Programs medical director Dr. Rayuda Koka said that with hundreds of people on the city’s by-name (homeless) list, it’s far from enough.
In March, the city counted 321 people as being actively homeless, of whom 68 were sleeping in encampments.
The city’s transitional housing efforts currently take care of 13 chronically homeless people and will ramp up to 40 once the Lorraine Street complex opens.
In short, Koka said, “We need more community services.”
Further to transitional housing, Leary said that a tight housing market has limited places for residents to transition into.
“What’s lacking in wellness, in addition to housing, is also recreation,” she said. “Accessible recreation goes a long way toward wellness as well as deterrence.”
This week’s conversation was capped by the board unanimously approving a push to declare a toxic drug crisis epidemic, which Greater Sudbury Police Board chair Gerry Lougheed had proposed.
On a similar note, GSPS Chief Sara Cunningham highlighted a recent crackdown on open drug use in Sudbury’s downtown neighbourhood, which she said they would do again “shortly.”
The targeted enforcement took place from Feb. 24 to March 7 and resulted in 52 charges laid. Police seized 301 grams of cocaine, 268 grams of fentanyl and 210 grams of methamphetamine.
“Our approach recognizes that enforcement alone is not sufficient; collaboration with healthcare providers, social services, and community organizations remains essential to addressing the root causes of drug-related crime,” the chief's report concludes.
This week’s unanimously approved motion was as follows:
WHEREAS in 2021 the Mayor of Greater Sudbury released a statement committing the City to working with community partners to advance our efforts on treatment, prevention and harm reduction locally; and
WHEREAS Public Health Sudbury and Districts passed “Motion #14-21: Local and Regional Opioid Crisis: Sounding the alarm” affirming a deepening drug crisis in the Sudbury area; and
WHEREAS Public Health Sudbury and Districts passed “Motion #39-23: Drug/Opioid Crisis Leadership Summit” for a local leadership summit on the escalating drug toxicity crisis; and
WHEREAS the Summary Report of the Greater Sudbury Summit on Toxic Drugs was released in early 2024; and
WHEREAS the Board received a presentation on January 22, 2025, from the GSPS Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) reviewing the current state of drug issues in Greater Sudbury, including the seizure of over 2,000 grams of fentanyl in 2024; now therefore
THAT the Greater Sudbury Police Service Board recognize the undue burden the Toxic Drug Crisis places on community services in Greater Sudbury, including health services, policing services, and community assistance services, and declares the Toxic Drug Crisis in Sudbury an epidemic; and further
THAT in light of this epidemic, the Board requests that the Government of Ontario and other vested stakeholders increase the funding and resources for such services to meaningfully address and end this epidemic in Ontario; and
THAT this motion be forwarded to the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Minister of Health and the City of Greater Sudbury.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
