[Comment] An undeniable public health urgency, but an incomplete response: centering racial and ethnic equity in Canada's “Strategic approaches to reducing the substance use-related burden of disease”

The recent article published in The Lancet Regional Health—Americas by Fischer and colleagues1 provides an important and useful appraisal of the burden of disease attributable to substance use in Canada, rightly emphasizing the urgency of effective public action. The authors pointed out three essential points. First, the scale and acceleration of the overdose crisis clearly demonstrate an imperative to act. Since 2016, tens of thousands of deaths from opioid toxicity have constituted a sustained public health crisis, with a strong predominance of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in the illicit drug supply in Canada.