Ontario is removing some higher-strength opioids from its drug index in response to alarming rates of prescription drug abuse and overdoses, according to a notice from the executive officer of Ontario public drug programs posted Wednesday.

“The inappropriate use, abuse, and diversion of prescription narcotics has emerged as a significant public health and safety issue in Canada and other jurisdictions around the world,” the notice reads.

The changes will de-list “long-acting” higher strength opioids from the public formulary, including certain dosages of Fentanyl patches (75 mcg/hr and 100 mcg/hr), Hydromorphone capsules (24 mg and 30 mg), Meperidine tablets (50 mg) and Morphine 200 mg tablets.

The changes mean that the products will no longer be funded by the Ontario Drug Benefit Program come January 2017.

“These changes are designed to encourage the appropriate use of opioids, improve patient care and help address the growing problem of opioid addiction in Ontario,” a separate Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care document prepared for pharmacists reads.

That document additionally says a subcommittee that reviewed the prescription painkillers said prescribing lower opioid doses may also improve patient outcomes.

Abuse of the prescription painkillers has been rising at an alarming rate in Canada’s largest provinces. In Ontario, opioid overdoses killed 2,471 people between 2011 and 2014.

Ontario recently made the anti-opioid drug naloxone available in pharmacies without a prescription at no cost, in an effort to fight opioid overdoses.

When the federal government moved to allow naloxone nasal spray earlier this month, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott referred to the national overdose rates as a crisis.

“The number of opioid overdoses in Canada is nothing short of a public health crisis,” Philpott said at the time.