WATERLOO REGION — Waterloo Regional Police responded to a record number of suspected opioid overdoses in January.

On Monday, police released January statistics showing officers responded to 75 suspected overdoses, of which 10 people died. The number of deaths is high given that for all of last year 50 people died of an opioid overdose in the region.

"This is certainly the highest we've ever seen in one month," said Const. Ashley Dietrich, adding that the service's drugs and firearms unit will be looking into the statistics further.

"It's certainly a public health crisis and it's obviously not going away."

In 2018, the drugs and firearms unit seized one kilogram of fentanyl and more than 550 grams of carfentanil.

"That's not including front line patrol or any of our core teams seizing those substances as well," she said, adding that numerous firearms and weapons attributed to the drug subculture were also seized last year.

Carfentanil is 10,000 times more toxic than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl.

Police are asking those who choose to use, do so with someone else. That way, if one person experiences a crisis, the other can call emergency services or administer the opioid antidote, naloxone.

Naloxone kits are available for free at many pharmacies across the region as well as the mobile Sanguen Health Centre's community health van.

Officers in the region started carrying naloxone in 2017.

—With files from Liz Monteiro