By Jeremy Appel 29/05/2024 08:39 – First Nations people continue dying of drug poisoning at a disproportionate rate compared to the non-First Nations population, according to the latest surveillance report from the Alberta government and the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre. Despite making up just 3.6 per cent of the population in Alberta, First Nations people represent 20 per cent of all apparent unintentional opioid poisoning deaths in the province from 2016 to 2022, the May 2024 report found. That percentage has increased from 14 per cent of all unintentional opioid poisoning deaths in 2016 to 24 per cent in 2022. For First Nations people, the rate of apparent unintentional opioid poisoning per 100,000 people reached a height of 224 in 2021, compared to 26 for the non-First Nations…
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