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The pace of fentanyl fatalities in Alberta nearly kept to its record rate in the year’s third quarter, with 158 people succumbing to the synthetic opiate.

That compares to 167 in the three months previous to that and 170 in the year’s first quarter.

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Those numbers suggest the opioid crisis in Alberta might have a reached a static level, said the latest Alberta Health report on the issue.

“While it is too early to know for sure, this suggests overdose deaths may be plateauing,” it states.

“While fentanyl-related deaths continue to increase (over 2017), the increase appears to have slowed, and concurrently, non-fentanyl opioid deaths have decreased significantly,” it states.

In the same three months last year, from July through September, there were 143 such deaths and 687 in all of 2017.

Up until the end of September this year, there were 523 fatal opioid overdoses.

The Calgary area continues to record the largest number of the fatalities, with 64 from July to September.