Partly to blame, he said, is a government emergency program that put temptation in the way of users by giving them a sudden cash infusion with few questions asked. “People have been applying for the government COVID-19 aid, using it to binge on drugs and overdosing,” he said, just hours after surviving a dangerously high dose of fentanyl himself. It left him with a painful reminder: he fell while high, suffering a bloody scrape along the right side of his face.
The Trudeau government introduced a monthly Can$2,000 ($1,500) emergency benefit in March to help Canadians left jobless by the pandemic, as businesses were ordered closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The government simplified the application process to quickly funnel payments to Canadians in need. Applicants are required only to answer a few questions and certify their veracity. “With Can$2,000 in their pocket, people just went on benders,” Laplante said.
The Ontario coroner estimates fatal overdoses have shot up by 25 percent in the last three months. In British Columbia, deaths increased by 40 percent over the same period last year. “Tragically, other jurisdictions across the country are reporting similar trends,” Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam said last month. She pointed to “clusters of overdoses due to unknown or unusual mixes of toxic illicit substances” in several cities, including Toronto and Calgary.
A University of British Columbia study released Thursday found that a disproportionately high number of Canadians with mental health issues (59 percent versus 33 percent) had experienced a decline in their emotional, psychological and social well-being during the pandemic. Many have ended up homeless and addicted. “People who were already experiencing mental health challenges and marginalization appear to be the hardest hit,” researcher Emily Jenkins said in a statement.
Source: DJ
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