New approach for opioid crisis, say police

Ontario Provincial Police say they have undergone a big shift in their approach to overdoses as the opioid crisis deepens.

The changes include collecting and giving officers access to real-time data on overdoses.

They also include mandatory investigations of every overdose and software that looks for links in disparate investigations in an effort to track down drug dealers.

The O-P-P covers 340 of Ontario’s 440 municipalities, the vast majority of them in rural areas.

The force says fatal overdose deaths in OPP-enforced areas are up 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same time frame last year.

The latest available federal data says more than 1,200 Ontarians and nearly 4,000 Canadians died in 2017.