Alberta expands overdose prevention app to users in Edmonton amid rising opioid deaths

The Alberta government has made an overdose prevention app available to users in Edmonton as part of its response to increasing rates of opioid-related deaths in the city this year.

The app — which connects drug users with support staff who can call emergency responders if they suspect an overdose — first launched in Calgary in August. The province hopes expanding its reach to Edmonton will help stop an escalating number of drug-poisoning deaths.

The rate and number of people dying while using opioids in that city is rising faster than in the rest of the province. Almost 300 people died in Edmonton during the first seven months of 2021.

"The numbers are people," said Angela Welz, whose 18-year-old daughter Zoe died while using drugs nearly five years ago. "[They are] people who have families and people who are loved. And the families are left reeling after these losses."

In 2016, Zoe was among 553 Albertans who died from opioid overdoses. In the first seven months of 2021, 821 Albertans died of opioid poisoning, according to new data from the Alberta substance use surveillance system.

Last year, Alberta posted a record 1,158 opioid-poisoning deaths. The government wants to avoid surpassing that number with measures such as the app and by putting a supervised consumption site in the Strathcona area of the city. It would be Edmonton's first such site on the city's south side. The province is in the process of scoping out a site.