Police Warn Of Fentanyl Use

One person has died and two others went to hospital this weekend in what Winnipeg police say is a possible fentanyl overdose.

Police say in two separate instances, three men overdosed over the weekend at separate private house parties.

Police think the Fentanyl may have been mixed with cocaine.

Winnipeg Police spokesperson Rob Carver said fentanyl is commonly cut into other drugs, so drug users often don’t know they are even ingesting it.

Dr. Matthew Young of the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse tells 680 CJOB that’s why they believe there have been so many deaths.

Prescribed fentanyl patches, used to alleviate severe pain, are also getting in to the hands of addicts, he said. Just days ago, the CCSA released a new report charting a rise in fentanyl-related deaths in Canada between 2009 and 2014.

Toronto police are warning the public again about the dangers of Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid 40 times more potent than heroin, after the theft of 20 patches from a vehicle in North York last week.

Page couldn’t say how many fentanyl-related overdose deaths have occurred in Toronto, explaining that officers are now working with Ontario’s coroner to determine numbers.

There has been a recent spike in overdoses linked to fentanyl in Western Canada.