Why did life expectancy fall in Canada?

According to a news report in The Globe and Mail, one of the primary reasons for falling life expectancy in Canada is the opioid epidemic.

Life expectancy in Canada has stopped increasing for the first time in more than four decades, due largely to soaring overdose deaths in the Western provinces. In British Columbia, the province hit hardest by these deaths, life expectancy fell for a second year in a row, decreasing by 0.3 years for men and 0.1 years for women from 2016 to 2017, according to Statistics Canada. In Alberta, the life expectancy for men fell by 0.24 years, and for women 0.1 years, over the same period…More than 10,300 people died of apparent opioid-related deaths across Canada between January, 2016, and September, 2018. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the hardest-hit neighbourhood in the country, life expectancy for men dropped by four years to 69.6 from 73.5 in the period from 2010-12 to 2016-17, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.

According to the CIA World Factbook, life expectancy in Canada is 81.9 years, which is still higher than the U.S. which is at 80.0 years.

from Healthcare Economist http://bit.ly/2InehD2