"It’s a national issue, it’s a growing problem," said Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

"Canada is the No. 2 user of opiates in the world next to the U.S., so there’s a lot of prescription opioids out there in the market."

"Most overdoses are preventable, they don’t need to happen, they don’t need to result in death. That’s the tragedy here," MacPherson said.

In Ontario, opioid overdoses are now the third leading cause of accidental death, according to the report. In Toronto alone, coroners' statistics show more than 200 people died of overdoses in 2012. Similar increases have also been recorded in Quebec and British Columbia.

"It’s all kinds of people. It’s your grandmother, it’s your husband when he comes out of surgery and his medication isn’t working and his pain isn’t being managed properly and he takes more because the pain is still there," said Holly Kramer, with the Canadian Harm Reduction Network.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/opiate-overdose-deaths-rising-across-canada-1.2678820