Pubdate: Wed, 09 Aug 2017
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.thewhig.com/letters
Website: http://www.thewhig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Ian MacAlpine
Page: A1

UNION SAYS FENTANYL FOUND AT COLLINS BAY

Bob Finucan, Ontario regional president of the Union of Canadian
Correctional Officers based in Kingston, said correctional service
officers have been exposed to the dangerous drug fentanyl inside
Correctional Service Canada institutions in Ontario twice in the past
two months, including at Collins Bay Institution, but that there have
been no reported overdoses or injuries from the exposures.

After hearing reports of federal correctional officers in Alberta
being exposed to the deadly drug on three occasions in the past month,
Finucan agreed that if it can happen in Alberta, it can happen in this
region.

Last month, seven guards at two institutions - Bowden Institution
north of Calgary and Edmonton Institution - were exposed to fentanyl
and three officers were hospitalized after receiving the nasal spray
Narcan, a medicine commonly used to treat opioid overdoses.

Fentanyl can be inhaled accidentally or absorbed through the skin.
Even tiny amounts of it, about the size of a grain of salt, can be
enough to cause an overdose.

In Edmonton, six officers were exposed to what is believed to be
fentanyl while searching inmates' mail.

Fentanyl was discovered by two correctional officers while sorting
mail at Collins Bay Institution on July 11, Finucan said, and at Grand
Valley Institution, a women's correctional facility in Kitchener, in
late June.

In both instances, Finucan said, naloxone wasn't necessary and there
were no injuries to the officers.

He added that officers could get exposed to fentanyl at any time
during the course of their regular daily duties.

"Every day we're going through mail," he said. "That's a big concern.
You open up a package and all of a sudden you get it.

"It's dangerous for us. You can overdose just by opening a piece of
mail."

Finucan said officers can also be exposed during cell
searches.

He said naloxone is readily available within the local
institutions.

"We have it here. We have it available to use if we need it," he
said.

Finucan said the union is working with CSC on procedures to try to
restrict the drug from entering their institutions.

"They have to make sure they get their procedures in place to protect
our members and don't get exposed," he said of the correctional service.

Officials from CSC were unable to get back to the Whig-Standard with
comments by press time.
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MAP posted-by: Matt