The drug fentanyl is suspected of killing two people and causing 14 other overdoses in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The local health authority issued a warning Thursday, saying the drug is suspected of causing 15 overdoses, including one death. Just hours later, a 39-year-old woman was found dead in her home in St. John’s. Police said Friday that fentanyl is suspected of killing her too.
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Sgt. Steve Knight said users need to be aware that pills sold as prescription medications like Percocet and Oxycontin may actually contain the stronger drug fentanyl.
“When they come in, they look exactly like the medication that’s prescribed by a physician,” Knight said of the pills.
Prescription opioids can also kill, but users who take black market pills may be at particularly high risk. Fentanyl also sometimes kills users who believe they are buying heroin.
RNC Insp. Paul Woodruff said that police are focused on helping users get medical treatment “and keeping everybody safe.” Police patrol cars will soon carry kits containing the overdose-reversing medication naloxone.
Provincial Health Minister John Haggie said that the government is trying to fight opioid addiction in a number of ways.
He said the province will roll out a prescription drug monitoring program to reduce inappropriate prescribing by doctors.
But Haggie warns that cutting off the supply of prescription pills might not be enough.
“Unfortunately, what tends to happen is that, as (prescription pills) get harder for people who are addicted to find, they tend to turn to illicit drugs,” he said. “These are the killers because you don’t know what’s in them.”
Haggie said the government is trying to fight addiction by expanding access to treatment with the drugs methadone and Suboxone, and is considering expanding addictions counselling.
Haggie said he doesn’t expect the opioid crisis to end any time soon. “We knew it was on the way,” he said. “And, unfortunately, more is yet to come.”
Eastern Health is advising the public of an increase in the number of serious overdoses related to an opioid being sold...
Posted by Eastern Health on Thursday, April 27, 2017
With reports from NTV’s Danielle Baron and Colleen Lewis
