With drug toxicity continuing to kill Greater Sudburians at historically high rates, police are targetting those drugs deemed most dangerous.
Last year alone, 16,458 grams of drugs were seized by Greater Sudbury Police Service members.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts, meanwhile, reported 134 suspected drug toxicity deaths in Sudbury and Manitoulin districts last year.
This death toll is on par, give or take nine deaths, from where the region has been since 2020.
Prior to that, 2019 recorded 79 deaths and 2018 counted 55.
Northern Ontario’s drug toxicity rate per 100,000 population far exceeded Ontario as a whole, with a rate of 60.4 last year to Ontario’s 22. Sudbury and Manitoulin districts’ rate was 61.2.
The rate has exceeded 60 in Sudbury and Manitoulin districts since 2020, peaking at 68.5 in 2022, prior to which it was 30.6 in 2019.
“We’re targetting the drugs that are hurting people and are killing people,” Sgt. Rob Spec told Sudbury.com.
Since 2019, the prevalence of powder fentanyl known to city police has skyrocketed, with GSPS seizing 19 grams in 2019 (plus 821 grams of fentanyl/heroin) and 2,324 grams last year.
“It’s not made in a laboratory somewhere by a company, it’s made by dealers/manufacturers,” Spec said of powder fentanyl. “The potency, when it arrives to the end user, is unknown, and that’s why it’s dangerous.”
Whereas with a manufactured pill you know there’s 80 mg of fentanyl, he said with powder, “you could be getting a gram of fentanyl and you don’t know what the potency is.”
During the latest police board meeting, Spec joined Sgt. Darin Heffern in updating the board and public on GSPS Drug Enforcement Unit operations.
“Most people that die from a drug overdose in Sudbury used fentanyl,” Heffern said at the time. “The general feeling of being unsafe when you’re walking the streets is one thing, but the impact on homelessness, mental health and the overall crime picture in Sudbury is affected.”
During the meeting, board chair Gerry Lougheed suggested that the board declare an emergency.
“If we declare an emergency, then the mayor and council can go to other funders provincially and federally … and we can get more resources,” he said.
After the meeting, he told Sudbury.com that the idea would re-emerge at a future meeting.
Coming out of the meeting, Sudbury.com sought additional insight regarding the numbers GSPS reported.
In 2019, 71,494 grams of drugs were seized, followed by 44,419 in 2023 and 16,458 in 2024.
It’s difficult to extrapolate trends out of these numbers, Spec cautioned, noting that any year’s totals can be skewed by a singular drug bust.
The year 2019, for example, saw Project Skylark unfold, which capped off a 14-month investigation with the arrest of 15 suspects and $420,000 worth of drugs in Sudbury alone.
Last year, an Elm Street assault led police to a $135,000 drug seizure which included 350 grams of suspected fentanyl and 1,050 grams of suspected cocaine.
As for broader local trends, Spec said that since marijuana was legalized in 2018 (with rules, including a limit of 30 grams), it’s generally no longer of concern to the Drug Enforcement Unit, which hasn’t seized any in recent years.
Patrol operations still seize marijuana as part of other efforts, with 1,103 grams seized last year.
“Our primary concern is the opioid crisis, but fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine top the list in what we’re targetting because they are the most dangerous,” Spec told Sudbury.com.
As for stimulants such as cocaine and meth, he said meth pills are still popular, with the Drug Enforcement Unit seizing 700 grams in January alone (they seized 1,003 grams in 2024, while patrol operations seized 2,458 grams last year).
Fentanyl patch use has largely fallen off in lieu of powdered fentanyl, while the use of other opioids appear to have remained prominent.
Other than that, with single drug busts and enforcement efforts easily skewing numbers, Spec didn’t want to ascribe too much more to the numbers of grams seized.
The underlying highlight, he said, is that recent years’ trend of lethal drugs on the streets has maintained throughout 2024.
Keeping in mind that numbers fluctuate from year to year depending on such things as major drug busts, total drugs seized, between patrol operations and Drug Enforcement Unit, in 2024 were as follows, in order from most to least:
- Cocaine: 6,323
- Crack: 561
- Heroin: 3
- Fentanyl: 2,324
- Fentanyl patches: 6
- Meth pills: 3,461
- Meth: 1,640
- Hydro-morphone: 510
- MDMA: 19
- MDMAN powder: 57
- Psilocybin: 74
- Oxycodone: 349
- Marijuana: 1,103
- Hash: 28
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.