On June 15, the federal government announced that opioid-related deaths across Canada significantly declined in 2025.
The government release noted that increased access to naloxone — a medication that reverses opioid overdoses — is a key factor attributed to this decline.
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The release also stated that 78 per cent of the deaths occurred in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
In my career, I have seen two substances emerge that changed the street drug scene in indescribable ways: methamphetamine and fentanyl.
How does this relate to Lloydminster? First, police do not determine the cause and manner of death; this is the responsibility of medical examiners.
When investigating sudden deaths, police complete a number of tasks, including a full scene examination. RCMP officers can indicate a suspected cause of death based on evidence and past experience, but we do not definitively determine it.
Each death investigation is conducted as suspicious until it is deemed non-suspicious.
We have experienced overdose deaths in Lloydminster, but that number is nowhere near the amount of overdoses that resulted in immediate treatment and recovery.
In the past 12 months, Lloydminster has seen nine deaths attributed to drug toxicity and another six suspected deaths.
The six remain suspected because autopsy reports have not been received yet.
A history of drug use by the deceased and the presence of drugs or drug paraphernalia are factored into these suspected deaths.
Some deaths will have drugs as a contributing factor, even though the person may have actually died of other health-related issues.
Recently, a local individual was arrested with evidence that they were remixing suspected fentanyl.
Due to the nature of illicit drugs, the risk to users is extreme. Pharmaceutically produced substances are made under tight restrictions, but street drugs are made in conditions far from sanitary without any quality controls.
As people continue to struggle with addiction, law enforcement will continue to target drug dealers. Unfortunately, as long as there are users of street drugs, there will be people willing to deal them.
Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future online columns from the Lloydminster RCMP.
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