Ontario Opioid Indicator Tool

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The Ontario Opioid Indicator Tool provides public access to indicators of opioid use, opioid-related harms, and access to treatment and harm reduction in the province from 2012 onwards. Since the ODPRN’s initial launch of this tool in 2018, the landscape of the overdose crisis in Ontario has shifted, with an increasing recognition that the majority of opioid-related harms have been associated with the unregulated opioid supply, which is predominantly made up of fentanyl. To better meet the needs of the current crisis, the tool has been updated with new indicators which have an increased focus on opioids used for the treatment of opioid use disorder, as well as complications arising from opioid-related harms not reported elsewhere.

Most of the data is housed at ICES, with the exception of the following harm reduction data: Injectable and intranasal naloxone provided by the Ontario Naloxone Program; needles provided by the Needle Syringe Program; and straight stems, bowl pipes, foil and straws provided by the Ontario Harm Reduction Distribution Program. This tool is designed to complement Public Health Ontario’s interactive tool on opioid-related morbidity and mortality in Ontario which includes similarly presented indicators of opioid-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths.

All indicators in this tool were developed with input from a variety of stakeholders, including Public Health Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, Public Health Units (PHUs), Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), community groups, and people with lived experience.

The Ontario Opioid Indicator Tool uses data from the Narcotics Monitoring System (NMS), which captures all opioid prescriptions dispensed in retail pharmacies across Ontario. The indicators for opioid-related harm also use data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information National Ambulatory Care Reporting System and Discharge Abstract Database.

The tool is interactive and the graphs and maps are adjustable to present patterns in the distribution of these indicators by age, sex, LHIN and PHU. All data displayed on the tool is available for download and will be updated on an approximately quarterly basis.

Data last updated: March 7, 2024