Lambton Public Health (LPH) has been following concerning drug-related trends as it hopes to take a community approach to tackle the ongoing issue.
Manager of Health Promotion Michael Gorgey said LPH received a report on October 28 from the coroner's office of two drug-related fatalities, which prompted an advisory to be issued.
"We issue an advisory when we're seeing a marked difference in what's been happening in our community. So if there's a sudden rise in overdoses outside of -- I wouldn't want to say normal because there's nothing normal about it -- what we would see as the normal trend," said Gorgey. "If we have a surge in the number of overdoses or a sudden spike in deaths, that to us means that there's something markedly different happening within the community, whether that's an increase in toxicity, and we want to make sure that people who use drugs are aware."
Specifics about the individuals who recently died and the specific drug used could not be provided. However, Gorgey said fentanyl or a derivative of the deadly drug was likely to blame.
In late August, LPH noticed changes in the local opioid overdose-related trends where more calls were being made to EMS. Gorgey said the trend appears to remain steady over the past couple of months.
As for the next steps, Gorgey said LPH is working to release its drug and alcohol strategy and wants to work as a community in order to take a harm reduction approach.
Preliminary data shows there were nine drug-related deaths between January and March. Gorgey was unable to provide up-to-date statistics as it's provided by the province.
