‘Pretty shocking’: Saskatoon first responders see a significant spike in overdoses

WATCH: Officials are voicing concern about a spike in overdoses in Saskatoon.

Local officials are sounding the alarm over a recent spike in overdoses in Saskatoon.

The Saskatoon Fire Department said it’s responded to at least one overdose every shift since January 1.

“There hasn’t been a shift where we haven’t had at least one overdose or more, which is a pretty shocking thing,” Deputy Chief Rob Hogan told reporters on Tuesday.

Hogan said from Feb. 1 to 10 the fire department responded to 53 overdoses — that’s more than double compared to the same time last year.

Overall, there have been about 40 more overdoses so far this year, compared to the same time in 2024, Hogan said.

He says these statistics only reflect what the Saskatoon Fire Department has responded to, and notes other organizations, like hospitals and paramedics, also respond to overdoses.

“This number is alarming because it’s a high number for us, but what’s the actual number in the community? It’s probably quite a bit higher,” Hogan said.

He said the fire department recently responded to 14 overdoses in the span of 24 hours.

It comes as the Ministry of Health is warning of what it calls “dangerous drugs” in the Saskatoon area. It said it’s not known what the drugs look like or what they are sold as, but they may contain opioids. It also said naloxone has not been effective in all cases.

Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) encourages people to test their drugs at the safe consumption site and is hoping to determine what is circulating in the community that may be contributing to the increase in overdoses.

“We would hope to get a sample that we could test on our spectrometer, and then we’d have a better understanding about what’s in the bad batch,” Miranda Deck with PHR told CTV News.

Deck said to help decrease the risks of drug use, she encourages people to not use alone and to always carry naloxone.