Moncton first responders receive ‘exponentially more’ overdose calls over weekend

Moncton dealt with a rash of overdoses last weekend.

It was a horrible weekend for Ryan Clements, one that could have cost him his life.

Clements was one of dozens to suffer a drug overdose in the Greater Moncton area between Friday and Sunday.

“There’s been a lot. There’s way too many. There’s a bad batch of fentanyl in town,” said Clements. “Me being a user myself, I overdosed three times this weekend. It’s pretty crazy.”

According to Ambulance New Brunswick, the 911 dispatch team received 65 calls in relation to suspected overdoses in the Greater Moncton area between Friday at 7:30 a.m. and Monday at 7:30 a.m.

Clements said paramedics revived him once and the other two times it was staff at the Bridge to Home Hub homeless shelter and resource centre.

As a regular user of the opioid, Clements knew there was something different about what he took over the weekend.

“As soon as you took it you instantly knew right away,” said Clements.

Moncton Fire Department Chief Conrad Landry said by Monday at lunchtime they had received 52 overdose calls.

Landry said over the same period for the previous weekend they received five overdose calls.

“It’s quite a significant increase,” said Landry.

Landry said firefighters have heard rumours from people on the streets that there is a bad batch of fentanyl that has come to the city.

When firefighters respond to a medical call, they can’t leave the patient until the ambulance arrives, even if there’s a fire, so overdose calls can put a strain on resources, the chief said.

Landry also said they can put a strain mentally on the crew members who respond.

“What we’re concerned about is mental fatigue or compassion fatigue,” said Landry. “That’s when a firefighters says, ‘Oh, it’s just another overdose.’ We’re not there yet, but we’re monitoring that.”

Landry said he’s heard there was one overdose fatality over the weekend and the department responded to six overdose calls as of noon Tuesday.

Four or five is the average for calls on a full day.

Hannah LaPointe is the vice president of Community Development for the YMCA of Greater Moncton.

LaPointe said YMCA staff responded to well over 30 overdose calls by their team alone and that doesn’t account for what other agencies in the city have seen.

They also have heard of one fatality.

“It’s been a rough couple of days,” said LaPointe. “It was exponentially more than what we would typically see.”

The victims – people of all different ages that the YMCA community outreach staff work with on a day-to-day basis.

“From early 20s to 60s,” said LaPointe. “Substance use disorder is not something that discriminates, unfortunately, and neither is people experiencing homelessness.”

As far as a bad batch, LaPointe said the weekend leads them to believe something is going on with the supply of fentanyl.

“The reality is these are people. It’s people’s lives that are at hand and it’s so much more than numbers,” said LaPointe.

Moncton MLA Rob McKee, who is the Minister responsible for Mental Health and Addictions, said the province is working with its community partners to better understand and improve the situation.

“It’s a concern when there’s potent drugs on the streets that are doing this so we’re actively monitoring any trends and we continue to work with partners to ensure that naloxone kits are available,” said McKee.

McKee encourages people who are consuming dangerous drugs to do so with peers or at the Ensemble Moncton harm prevention site.

“I’ve seen the same reports that we’ve seen about tranquillizer-laced fentanyl, so it’s a serious concern that we have these potent drugs on our streets,” said McKee.

“I think we have to work with public safety initiatives to make our streets safer and get these bad actors that are bringing these drugs on to our streets put behind bars where they belong.”

Clements, speaking from right outside Ensemble, believes the drug he consumed contained benzodiazepines and tranquilizers.

“We want this stuff off the streets,” said Clements. “We don’t want anymore of it here.”

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