CCENDU Issue 7: Stimulant Use and Related Harms in Canada: Recent Trends

This issue is a special two-part series. The first part features a regional breakdown of reports from seven Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU) nodes and five drug checking services from across the country. It focuses on data for stimulant use (primarily cocaine and methamphetamine) and related harms, and includes data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Statistics Canada, Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service and National Wastewater Drug Surveillance.

Three key points of interest you will find in this document:

1. In Canada, the crude rate of apparent stimulant toxicity deaths doubled from 2018 to 2024.
2. The percentage of apparent opioid toxicity deaths involving stimulants has increased in all provinces and territories (where data are available) over the years, except in the Northwest Territories, which is seeing a decrease.
3. The main harms and adverse effects reported in relation to stimulant use are cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, cardiac arrythmias, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, and coronary artery disease. In contrast, the primary harm associated with opioid use is respiratory depression.