Addiction to opioid medications such as fentanyl and oxycodone is an epidemic in Canada and the U.S., the two countries with the heaviest per-capita opioid consumption in the world. It's a crisis in Hamilton, where the rate of opioid-related deaths last year was 72 per cent higher than the provincial average.

Host Jon Wells speaks with Hamilton Spectator health reporter Joanna Frketich.

Read our reporting here:

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9035721-surge-in-opioid-emergency-visits-in-hamilton/