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The number of drug overdose victims who required hospital treatment spiked in June to record levels as the city’s opioid crisis continued to gather pace.

Statistics released by Ottawa Public Health show that 135 people were taken to local emergency departments because of drug overdoses during four weeks in June — more than in any other four-week period in the past two-and-a-half years.

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The final week of June saw 42 people taken to hospital with potentially life-threatening drug overdoses.

It was the highest weekly total ever recorded in the city’s overdose database.

The numbers confirm that Ottawa’s opioid crisis continues to deepen even as local health officials take extraordinary measures to combat it.

This week, Inner City Health announced it is had started to prescribe Dilaudid, a powerful opioid, to people whose lives are at risk because of their addictions. That news came one week after the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre received federal approval to open a safe injection site where users can take drugs under medical supervision.