The Forgotten Ones: Drug Overdose Death's Since COVID-19
Abstract
Drug overdose deaths had become a matter of concern leading up to the year 2019 but became strongly overshadowed once the pandemic was declared. In addition, previous research showed that safe injection sites were not effective in reducing the curve of drug overdose deaths. This review compares the number of apparent opioid toxicity related deaths and COVID-19 related deaths. This gives way to an analysis of the lack of funding given to the drug overdose death crisis compared to the overwhelming support for the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings of this comparison indicated that over 400% more Canadian federal funding had been allocated to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to that of the drug overdose crisis, although COVID-19 had only experienced approximately 30% more deaths than the drug overdose crisis. Thus, showing great inequalities experienced by the overdose crisis during and post-pandemic.
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