Dangerous street drug
A Saturday press release from Delta Police notes they do not yet know where the drug came from and who may have sold it to the men. However, they are concerned there is more out there.
“This morning (we) were made aware of two individuals who were treated in hospital overnight after inadvertently overdosing on fentanyl after using cocaine,” the press release reads. “It is likely the cocaine the individuals used was cut with fentanyl, and although it is unknown where the drugs were obtained from police believe it is likely circulating in the South Delta area.”
Fentanyl has killed drug users in the Vancouver area in the recent past and in their press release, the South Delta police reminded anyone who might consider using street drugs that when “using any illegal drug there is no control over the product and users may not be ingesting the drug they intend to take, with potentially fatal consequences.”
Fentanyl: undetectable
Anywhere from 50 to 100 times more toxic than morphine, fentanyl acts as a respiratory depressant and when it’s mixed with other drugs it cannot be seen, tasted or smelled. Among other symptoms, the drug causes extreme fatigue, makes breathing difficult and slows the heart rate.
In B.C. in 2014 there were some 300 deaths from drug overdose, 25 percent involving a drug containing fentanyl. This year’s grim list of overdose deaths by fentanyl includes recreational drug users Amelia and Hardy Leighton, a North Vancouver couple who died in July, leaving behind a two-year-old.
Along with other Canadian provinces, B.C. has an opioid antidote kit available; the kit can be obtained at dozens of sites around the province and information is linked here. Among other things, it contains an antidote to fentanyl.
The kit is free of charge.
