NEW DATA: alcohol-attributed deaths spiked during lockdowns

A new Statistic Canada report published Friday shows the number of people who died due to alcohol use reached "new highs." Fatalities tallied as booze-related include alcoholic liver disease, accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol, and finding alcohol in the blood autopsy.

In 2019, there were 3,200 deaths related to alcohol. In 2020, the count jumped to 3,790. In 2021, there were 3,875 alcohol-related deaths.

The increase, 18% year-over-year- from 2019 to 2022, was the highest in 20 years.

Deaths from booze jumped 18% from 2019 to 2020, the highest increase in 20 years.

Isolation, job loss, despair, and fear will do that to people.

But there will be no accountability for the overreactors who caused it. https://t.co/2NwjgAeAcv

— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) January 13, 2023

"These are large increases, particularly [because] these numbers tend to be relatively static," Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria's Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and professor at the university's School of Public Health and Social Policy, told CBC.

"Having said that, it's not surprising. We know that alcohol consumption has gone up, although not by the degree with how deaths have."

Opioid overdose deaths in Alberta have outnumbered deaths by COVID.

We are letting people fall through the cracks and the bodies are piling up.

Who will be held accountable? https://t.co/TTORbcMR1H

— Cosmin Dzsurdzsa 🇷🇴 (@cosminDZS) December 18, 2020

Opioid deaths also sky-rocketed in Alberta during the height of the lockdowns, often exceeding covid-attributed fatalities.