I wonder which months the worst of those stats were from. When covid first hit, the city locked down hard, even the needle exchange and supervised injection sites closes. A lot of dealers went missing too, and with the border closures there was no cross-border supply from the U.S. Prices skyrocketed on limited supply. People had hardcore WD symptoms, all my outreach worker friends were talking about what a shit show it was.
Then the lockdowns ended and people binged as soon as stuff became available again. Add to that, the loneliness and isolation of the lockdowns. A lot of outreach workers were no longer able to visit community dwellings because of covid. The community programming all halted for a good 5-6 months.
As usual the poorest and more disenfranchised people were hit hardest. The city I've been hiding out in since last year has it worse. Very few social services. The OD rate has skyrocketed as addicts are barred up in their homes in the middle of winter alone, with no public venues to hang out at.
I'm so sick of how the government has handled this covid shit. If you're under 50, you have a 99.8% chance of surviving infection. They shouldn't be shutting down all of society, it's just creating more ills.