How drug units deal with fentanyl The death toll for fentanyl continues to rise in 2017, with nearly double the number of deaths being reported in the first six weeks of the year. According to Health Canada, from Jan. 1 to Feb, 11, 51 people died from overdosing on fentanyl. In 2016 during the same six weeks, 28 Albertans died as a result of a fentanyl overdose. The drug was first found in St. Albert in 2014 and since then the St. Albert RCMP's drug unit said that currently there is at least one pill found in around 80 per cent of their overall drug cases. [continues 938 words]
A tag hanging from a dead man's left toe says the cause of death was an overdose of fentanyl, "unknowingly taken with other drugs." The cadaver draped in a white sheet is displayed in transit ads funded by the Vancouver Police Foundation and represents 922 people who died in British Columbia from drug overdoses last year alone. A spiralling number of deaths, often involving the painkiller fentanyl, prompted the provincial government to declare a public health emergency on April 14, 2016, and to launch its own awareness campaign on TV, radio, Facebook, transit and at bars and restaurants. [continues 704 words]
Canada is preparing to legalize and regulate possession of marijuana - with a target date of July 1, 2018. It's a long overdue public policy with sound economic and health arguments to back it up, notably: More harm is caused by criminal prohibition and prosecution than the use of marijuana itself; Criminal laws prohibiting possession do not deter use; Decriminalization of possession does not lead to greater use; Decriminalization frees up resources for police and the courts to deal with more serious crimes; [continues 689 words]
Four others in serious condition after ecstasy use at two city dance clubs Five overdoses near Toronto nightclubs early Saturday, including one that killed a 24-year-old woman, triggered a health warning and calls for clubs and authorities to take new steps to save lives. Police say the overdoses involved the party drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Tests should reveal if the woman also ingested fentanyl, a toxic anesthetic sometimes mixed into other drugs, or another substance. The overdoses near Uniun Nightclub, near Adelaide and Portland Sts., and Rebel Nightclub at Polson Pier are part of an alarming trend, said Councillor Joe Cressy, who chairs the city's drugstrategy. [continues 318 words]
Force believes missing money placed in police bank account Halifax Regional Police have located 34 of 72 exhibits that were missing from their evidence storage, but the remaining 38 - including nearly $5,000 in cash - are still unaccounted for. Chief Jean-Michel Blais will present a report to the municipality's Board of Police Commissioners on Monday updating the force's progress on finding the missing items from the Drug Exhibit Audit released last year. That audit was conducted between June and November 2015 after an officer was accused of stealing from an evidence vault. Police originally found 90 per cent of the drug exhibits in one vault were unaccounted for, and 55 per cent of the evidence in the money vault wasn't where it was supposed to be. [continues 278 words]
Health, community and emergency service agencies from the Kingston area gathered Monday to plan for what many fear is a coming public-health crisis. With a sudden spike in opioid overdoses across the country, medical experts, paramedics, firefighters, police officers, community health groups and representatives from public health units from Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Grenville and Lanark and Prince Edward County met for a daylong set of table-top exercises and discussions about how best to cope with the opioid overdose crisis should it hit the Kingston area. [continues 391 words]
WATERLOO REGION - A group of parents sit around a small table. Their eyes are red from crying. Nearby are framed photos of the children they have lost to drug overdoses. Among them are Iain Goddard, Brittany Cobbing and Austin Padaric. Janice Walsh-Goddard didn't even know what fentanyl was when she heard it killed her son. Iain Goddard died last May while Janice was in England on vacation. She got the call on the last day of her weeklong trip. [continues 1488 words]
When asked if fentanyl is the now biggest reason to fear recreational drugs, Valemount RCMP Officer, Chris Gallant said, "To answer the question simply, yes." The Valemount Secondary School hosted a fentanyl forum to educate residents on what fentanyl is, what an overdose looks like and how to reverse the effects of an overdose. A similar presentation was given to students earlier in the day. Principal Dan Kenkel emceed the forum and the panel consisted of the B.C. Ambulance Service's (BCAS), Dakota Stone, B.C. Emergency Health Services' (BCEHS) Community Paramedic, Jasmin Gasser, Northern Health Mental Health and Addictions Counselor, Heather Whalen, Northern Health Community Health Nurse, Bernita Nesjan, and RCMP Officer, Chris Gallant. [continues 578 words]
Reporter's eerie experience in simulator suit I felt like Jimmy Hoffa with one leg encased in cement. I was lurching because of my super heavy left leg, which made it tough to walk and impossible to navigate in a straight line. My ears buzzed with random sounds. My double vision was blurry with flashing red, blue and green lights on the periphery. If I shut one eye I could kind of focus on what was straight ahead. But barely. When four tennis balls were lobbed my way, I was so uncoordinated and my reaction time so slow I couldn't catch one. My right arm chronically twitched and I could barely turn my neck or bend my elbows because of my restricted movement. [continues 412 words]
Here we are in the biggest fatal overdose epidemic in B.C. history and what's top of mind for the province's addiction treatment experts? The need to "destigmatize" addiction. In fact, let's not even call the taking of deadly illegal drugs an "addiction" or "drug abuse" any more, they tell us. We're supposed to call addicts "patients" with a "substance-use disorder." Excuse me if I don't buy the nicey-nicey language. And I doubt if most people who live in the real world and who have to pay millions of dollars in taxes for all these latest trendy approaches to drug addiction do, either. [continues 703 words]
All first responders in the Fernie area are now equipped to take on a potential opioid crisis. Fernie Fire and Rescue were the last group in the area to become trained in opioid overdose situations by BC Emergency Health Services. The main area of focus for training was on Naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses. Unable to give any numbers at this time, Elk Valley RCMP Corporal Bob Wright did state that, "We have responded to Fentanyl drug use in the Elk Valley. It has resulted in overdose-type situations." [continues 623 words]
Provincial health officer says powerful drug, found in recent treatment-facility tests, may be to blame for spike in deaths last year The appearance of the deadly opioid carfentanil may explain the dramatic spike in overdoses in British Columbia, despite efforts to slow the carnage, the provincial health officer says. Perry Kendall said as the number of overdose deaths climbed to record levels in November and December, officials suspected the synthetic drug normally used as a tranquilizer on large animals such as elephants was to blame. [continues 404 words]
Nelson Police Chief aims to educate public and those vulnerable to overdose The numbers are terrifying. Nelson Police Chief Paul Burkart has the B.C.Coroners Service annual report sitting on his desk, as well as alarming Interior Health statistics that show fentanyl has come to the Kootenays. In 2016 there were 914 overdose deaths in B.C.,a record number for the province and more than double the total for 2015. "It certainly does scare me," Burkart told the Star. [continues 1045 words]
The Haldimand- Norfolk Health Unit wasn't exaggerating last year when it warned about the threat of illegal street drugs cut with powerful synthetic opioids. Norfolk paramedics responded to 37 drug overdoses in all of 2014. This rose to 59 in 2015. In 2016, the total was 90. "These are only the number of calls that were specifically dispatched as drug overdoses and do not account for other primary problems associated with overdose that the crews were sent to such as vital- signs- absent, unconscious-unresponsiveness, seizures, respiratory problems or behavioural-psychiatric occurrences," Sarah Townsend, Norfolk's manager of emergency medical services, said Jan. 6 in an update on opioid occurrences. [continues 366 words]
[photo] Bruce Brandler is chief federal law enforcement officer for a sprawling judicial district that covers half of Pennsylvania. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press) The phone at Bruce Brandler's home rang at 3:37 a.m. It was the local hospital. His 16-year-old son was there, and he was in really bad shape. A suspected heroin overdose, the nurse said. Brandler didn't believe it. Erik had his problems, but heroin? It seemed impossible. Nearly 10 years later, the nation is gripped by a spiraling crisis of opioid and heroin abuse -- and Brandler, a veteran federal prosecutor recently promoted to interim U.S. attorney, suddenly finds himself in a position to do something about the scourge that claimed his youngest son's life. [continues 778 words]
