New federal data indicates that more Canadians are using stimulants such as cocaine, and experts warn that this trend is contributing to the rise in drug-related deaths.

In most municipalities included in the study, cocaine levels increased from January to May 2022 compared to the same period in 2020, and early 2023 data indicates that the overall increase continues, according to a report from Statistics Canada released on Wednesday.

With overall overdose doses increasing by more than 30 percent from 2020 to 2021, nearly half of apparent opioid-related accidental deaths were also due to stimulants, Statistics Canada reported, citing another report from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

For her part, Tara Gomes, a researcher at Unity Health Toronto and the lead investigator at the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN), who was not involved in the federal study, said: "The data shows that things have worsened in the past few years." 

She added that this is really a complex issue, as people use multiple substances and need multiple types of programs and services.

Rise in cocaine deaths in Nova Scotia:

The Statistics Canada report was based on data from the Canadian wastewater survey, which regularly collects wastewater samples from several municipalities across the country since 2019 to test for different types of drugs.

The report also compared Canadian cities with populations over 100,000 to those in Europe, where wastewater is monitored by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

This classification places five Canadian cities among the top ten centers with the highest levels of cocaine in wastewater, including Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto. The first Canadian city, ranked third, was Halifax.

Also, CBC News recently reported that cocaine is linked to an increase in drug-related deaths and overdoses across Nova Scotia, where nearly half of nearly 80 accidental overdose deaths last year were caused by cocaine, which is three times the number from a decade ago.

The Nova Scotia health authority said that cocaine and the opioid hydromorphone were among the drugs reported to have been used in a recent "cluster" of suspected overdoses, which included death.

Ontario is also witnessing an increase in the number of people dying from multiple toxic substances, including stimulants, based on the latest available data.

A report by Gomes, released in September by ODPRN and Public Health Ontario, showed that nearly 2,900 Ontario residents died from toxic substance consumption in 2021—almost double the number from just three years earlier.

After the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, more deaths occurred due to at least two types of substances, the Gomes team found, and most of these people had a combination of opioids and stimulants in their systems.

Gomes pointed out that illegal opioid supplies are contaminated with other substances, including benzodiazepines, a class of drugs that slow brain activity and can be used to treat conditions like anxiety. Some individuals might use stimulants to counteract those sedative effects.

She said her patients use opioids, which are depressants, and alcohol, which is a depressant, then turn to an upper substance.

Opioids are a class of drugs that include heroin, fentanyl, and a variety of legal painkillers. Stimulants also include cocaine, methamphetamine or crystal meth which is highly addictive, MDMA/ecstasy, and amphetamines—which can include both illicit drugs and medically prescribed medications.