TORONTO — A study has found that one in 10 drug overdose deaths in Ontario between 2006 and 2013 involved individuals who had been released from a provincial correctional facility up to a year earlier.
Principal researcher Dr. Nav Persaud of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto says the highest proportion of overdose deaths occurred immediately following release. Nine per cent died in the first two days and 20 per cent within the first week.
The study published in the journal PLOS ONE also found that three-quarters of the 702 men and women who died of an overdose were under age 45.
Persaud says their overdose death rate is 12 times higher than that of the general population.
Most overdose deaths involved opioids like oxycodone and fentanyl, and in half of the cases there was a person present who could have intervened.
Persaud says educating inmates about the risks of drug toxicity prior to their release and providing the anti-overdose drug naloxone could help prevent future opioid-related deaths.
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced this week that the province will distribute naloxone to newly released inmates.
