It has now been confirmed that Amelia and Hardy Leighton of North Vancouver both had ingested toxic levels of fentanyl in combination with other drugs. Randy Fincham says local service providers advised police of a further 10 overdoses handled the same day, but no fatalities are reported.
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It is 50 to 100 times more toxic than morphine.
In a statement on the VPD website, police say that “fentanyl may be the cause”.
Pink-coloured heroin laced with fentanyl is being blamed for 16 overdoses in Vancouver over the weekend, and health officials and police are bracing for further emergency responses to a problem they feel is reaching near-epidemic proportions.
The powerful painkiller is being blamed for a spike of overdose deaths across Western Canada, including four in British Columbia. “It is in the 80-per-cent range that there is probably fentanyl in it”, he said.
She says the illicit drug has been smuggled from overseas and has spread to streets across Canada. “We know there is clearly a supply of fentanyl in this region”.
RCMP say fentanyl finds its way to the Canadian black market either through diversion of pharmaceutical-purpose fentanyl products or smuggling.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse can also be accumulating knowledge on the variety of non-fatal overdoses, or the variety of people in search of remedy for substance use issues associated to fentanyl, for a extra complete understanding of the type of injury that the drug can do.
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Henry added the only way to test for fentanyl is with sophisticated lab equipment, so quick drug testing kits are useless. Naloxone is a drugs that reverses overdoses on account of opioids like fentanyl and may save lives in overdose conditions.
