The most recent data from Public Health Ontario (PHO) shows that 16 people in Windsor-Essex died from opioid abuse during the first half of this year.
That's slightly higher than the 14 who died during the same period last year.
In total, there were 36 opioid-related deaths across Windsor-Essex in 2017, slightly down from the 37 the year before. Fentanyl was responsible for 33 per cent of the deaths last year and 40 per cent in 2016, followed by Oxycodone and Methadone.
November had the highest number of deaths last year with eight.
PHO also said there were 90 emergency department visits from January to June of 2018 in the Windsor area and 30 people were hospitalized because of opioid use. The data shows that local opioid abusers from 25 to 44 were the highest number of deaths, and of those, male deaths were almost four times higher than females.
PHO added that the number of opioid-related deaths in Ontario has increased 246 per cent since 2003 with more than 1,250 Ontarians dying from opioid-related causes in 2017.