A report from Public Health Sudbury and Districts shows the majority of fatal drug poisonings in the region occur inside people's homes, rather than in downtown areas, encampments or public spaces.
From 2022 to 2025 76 percent suspected and confirmed drug poisoning deaths According to the Office of the Chief Coroner, 80 percent of those killed lived in private homes.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, CEO of Public Health Sudbury and Districts and co-chair of the City of Greater Sudbury's Community Drug Strategy, said the numbers confirm what frontline workers have known for years.
“Most people who overdose overdose in their home,” Hirji said. “Often these are people who are living their lives, working, having families, but struggling with this addiction.”
He said public attention often focuses on visible homelessness and drug use in the inner city, but the data shows a much broader crisis.
From 2022 to 2025, the number of deaths from drug poisoning reached:
- 114 deaths: Gatchell, Donovan, Flour Mill, West End, Little Britain.
- 87 deaths: South End
- 59 deaths: downtown and Minnow Lake.
“This is a much more complex issue than what we see every day in the community,” Hirji said.
“Addiction wants you to be isolated.”
For people with life experience, the trend towards private residences is not surprising.
Alicia Fenerty, a Sudbury woman recovering from drugs and alcohol, says addiction often keeps people at home, behind closed doors and away from anyone who might intervene.
“Addiction is a very isolating disease,” Fenerty said. “You sit at home and use drugs alone… your addiction wants you to be isolated. It's trying to kill you.”
Fenerty said many people assume drug use occurs “at parties” or in public, but she described years of secret use while maintaining housing and sometimes a job.
“You could be sitting next to someone who uses fentanyl on a daily basis. You wouldn't know it because they can function on it,” she said.
Her mother died in 2017 from alcoholism, and her brother died in 2020 at age 40 after years of opioid use, which allegedly potentially worsened an existing heart condition and led to his death.
She said her first drug of choice was fentanyl because it numbed the grief she “didn’t know how to deal with.”
Over time, she graduated to daily use of crack, methamphetamine, and even carfentanil during the worst period of her addiction.
Fenerty says stigma drives people deeper into hiding.
“You don’t want to lose your job, your kids… so keep it a secret and keep it behind closed doors,” she said.
Fenerty also witnessed overdoses, including the death of a neighbor who was 20 years old.
“I tried to wake her up, but I couldn’t… Fifteen minutes later she was gone,” she said. “It was heartbreaking.”
Fenerty is now focused on regaining her health after a recent relapse that followed a year and a half of sobriety. This relapse has led to an ongoing child custody case with the Children's Aid Society, but she is working to regain custody.
“I've had mind-altering substances in my body my whole life… I looked back at everything I'd done and the mess I'd caused and the pain I'd caused people. I apologized to my father and said, “I’m sorry I took your daughter away from you. I took your grandchildren from you.”
Emergency doctors say they are 'flying blind'
Emergency physician Dr Dominic Ansell, from Health Sciences North, said overdoses were becoming increasingly difficult nowadays as people often did not know what substances they had taken.
“We’re flying a little blind,” she said. “We don't know exactly what medicine was taken…our patients may still not know what was in it.”
She said tranquilizers and other non-opioid substances make overdoses difficult to treat, and naloxone — a drug that can reverse an overdose — doesn't always work.
Ansell averages three to four overdose-related presentations every eight- or 10-hour shift.
She said overdose patients come from a variety of backgrounds.
“It could be anyone: a middle-aged woman, a man, from any walk of life,” she said. “There is no specific profile. It does not discriminate.”
Ansell said the public may be surprised by who showed up in the emergency room.
She emphasized that people who use psychoactive substances should seek help.
“We’re here to help,” she said. “Any difficulties or overdoses, I always hope that people will come to us so we can provide them with the services they need.”
Public health demands more treatment and housing
Hirji said addressing the crisis requires stronger support from the province, including more affordable housing, more drug treatment spaces and expanded harm reduction services.
“The supply of people seeking drug treatment has been depleted,” he said. “We need the provincial government to fund more drug services… and a renewed commitment to harm reduction.”
Of the 10 regions in the province with the most drug overdose deaths, seven are in northern Ontario. The death rate in Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Manitoulin districts has consistently been two to three times higher than the provincial average.
While the causes are complex, Hirji said a sustained, multi-layered response is needed.
“Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes,” he said.
