The epidemiology of cocaine and opiate abuse in urban Canada

Abstract

This study describes the epidemiology of cocaine and heroin abuse in urban Canada as part of an initial report on an national substance abuse surveillance system, the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use. Data pertaining to prevalence of use, law enforcement, treatment, morbidity and mortality of cocaine and heroin were obtained from the appropriate health and law enforcement institutions in six sentinel cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Cocaine and heroin appear to be more available in Vancouver than in the remaining cities. In all CCENDU cities, large proportions of persons in treatment programs for substance abuse identified cocaine as their major addiction; however, there is considerable variation in treatment utilization regarding heroin. Vancouver ranks first in terms of the per capita number of cocaine- and heroin-related hospital separations and mortality rate. Cocaine abuse appears to be an emerging problem in Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax, and opiate abuse appears to be an emerging problem in Calgary.