Three fatal drug overdoses in Winnipeg may be fentanyl-related, authorities said Wednesday , after two women and one man were found dead inside a home in a residential neighbourhood.
Early Wednesday, police said they found three bodies inside a home, along with an unknown amount of white powder and various drug paraphernalia.
Officers arrived on scene after receiving a medical call shortly after midnight from someone connected to the individuals.
When police arrived at the home, they said they saw an unresponsive male within the home and forced entry.
Inside they found the bodies of one man and two women, all under 40 years old.
Const. Rob Carver said they suspect the powder may be the synthetic opioid fentanyl or its much-more powerful cousin carfentanil.
“That’s certainly the suspicion at this point that it may be in fact fentanyl, and we are taking all the precautions we are because of that suspicion,” Carver said.
The drugs have been linked to a sharp rise this year in drug-related deaths.
Both drugs can be deadly. Carfentanil is so powerful, a dose the size of a few grains of salt can be fatal. Police say it can be mixed in with other drugs such as cocaine or crystal meth, so users may not even be aware they are ingesting it.
Carver explained that police are trying to find where the drugs found in the home came from, as it might be linked to further drug activity within the community.
“We want to know the source of the drug,” he said. “This residence might be a nexus of an investigation regarding that, but there’s nothing illegal at this point in the house, other than the presence of a potentially controlled substance.”
Carver says it will take a few weeks for lab results to confirm if the unknown white powder is fentanyl.
The city's firefighters' union says Winnipeg is facing a fentanyl crisis and first responders are dealing with multiple overdoses every day.
"Where before a paramedic would go to one or two overdoses a year, now we're seeing firefighter-paramedics attending to overdoses every single day," Alex Forrest of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg told The Canadian Press.
"Our guys and girls are going out to these calls and going to these events, and sometimes we have two or three individuals that we're reviving that are on the verge of cardiac arrest because of the fentanyl use."
"This type of incident is on everyone's minds," Carver said. "It's changing the landscape of how we work and how first responders work."
A report released Wednesday suggests that the opioid crisis is nation-wide. Between 2014 and 2015 13 Canadians were hospitalized a day for opioid overdoses.
A national summit is being held later this week to address the issue.
Police have warned drug users to ensure they have a naloxone overdose prevention kit on hand when using carfentanil, fentanyl or heroin. The kits can be purchased without a prescription at pharmacies, and opioid users can get them for free through a program run by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Files from The Canadian Press
