There have always been ways to die by overdose and those drugs were always readily available to those who wanted them. Opioids are the choice of suicide by drugs right now.
To say it is a supply issue is simply not true. The supply certainly has not increased dramatically during Covid, but the numbers of deaths have in these regions.
It absolutely IS a supply side issue as the review of studies I just posted Shows, yes, as well the illicit supply of Fentanyl, Carfentanyl has of course increased over the last 10yrs and this having horrific effects in any region that is seeing the influx of the lethal illicit product.
Further, when Oxy or Fentanyl, the same products were more heavily prescribed the same patterns were seen. Jurisdictions that firmly address these supply side dynamic issues see resolution of the problem. Jurisdictions that focus on demand side programs do little but have short term effects. For one explanation of the rise in such deaths during the pandemic is that injection sites are generally less tenable during a global pandemic.
They expose everybody to contact infection risks of Covid and so that users were less willing to use them. its a known dynamic that while injection sites help reduce per use risks as long as the injection is taking place onsite, they do nothing to STOP use or prevent OD's of same users AWAY from injection sites. So that probably what occurred over the last year is a lot of people that had ongoing difficulty with OD's were successful, away from injection sites. Some users have been *saved*40-50 times with Nalaxone kits. The drug injection issue continues.
What happened during Covid is increased supply, cheaper supply, more people with time to use, and money (Cerb and other) to buy drugs with. A fairly lethal combination
In anycase the INCREASE in deaths due to accident is a very small fraction of the overall Covid deaths. Which kind of moots your point.