N.S. health officials concerned as possible new mixes enter drug supply

Nova Scotia health officials are warning about a potentially stronger illicit drug supply.

Direction 180 in Halifax’s north end provides a low-barrier opioid treatment program and it’s seen an increased need for their services in recent years.

“We service folks that have opioid use disorder so they come to us and they can get started on treatment and that’s in the form of OAT, which a lot of people know as methadone and these are medications that are proven to be very effective and the gold standard for opioid use disorder,” says Amanda Moore, Direction 180 program manager.

They currently have 400 clients who rely on their services. Direction 180 is the only supervised consumption site in Halifax.

The only other such site in Nova Scotia is found in Cape Breton.

“We see the demand for that service growing absolutely, and so between that and the treatment that we offer, we are happy to provide care along the whole spectrum,” says Moore.

The Halifax Regional Police says their drug unit is not seeing crisis level opioids in the Halifax Regional Municipality. The biggest issue the drug unit is seeing is cocaine and crack cocaine, which police say have been ongoing problems.

“We became aware in the Amherst area at the beginning of the month that there was signals that there were additional overdoses or reactions to the drug supply that were being experienced so from a public health perspective, we were concerned that they was impacting a larger groups of people,” says Cristin Muecke, Nova Scotia Health’s Northern Zone regional medical officer of health.

“We are concerned that this problem may not go away. We obviously don’t have control over some of these supply issues but what we are concerned about is that they may increasingly be stronger more mixed and more unpredictable and that can cause a lot of issues for people that use substances because even if they have a degree of tolerance they may experience unintended effects.”

On Wednesday, Nova Scotia Health posted on social media about an “unverified #DrugAlert” in Cape Breton.

“We have received a report from a community source regarding Cocaine suspected to contain Xylazine and Fentanyl causing sedation in Cape Breton County,” says the post.

“We have been seeing opioids, which is not surprising of course, benzodiazepines, which are like antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, some of those are synthetic so not a natural product and sometimes they are manufactured. The one that is really showing up is medetomidine, which is a veterinary tranquilizer so it’s actually not meant for humans but quite strong so as a result even if there aren’t a lot of opioids there can be prolonged sedation,” says Muecke.

If you come into contact with someone who is experiencing an overdose, health officials say to use naloxone, and it may take multiple doses. Muecke says with the new drug mixes it’s important to stay with individuals.

“The thing to remember with naloxone is that it can help with opioid overdoses but it will not work for other substances. Because of the new mixes we are seeing, supplies that contain combinations of opioids, benzodiazepines, which are also a nervous system depressant, tranquilizers, including ones that aren’t intended for humans,” says Muecke.

Nova Scotia Health’s Take Home Naloxone Program offers free kits at more than 500 participating organizations and are available without a prescription or health card.

Residents can pick up kits at pharmacies and accept a training on how to use it and identify poisoning. Nova Scotia Health says it takes less than 10 minutes.

“From January to April, 1,489 injectable kits were distributed at participating pharmacies, while 5,960 injectable and nasal kits were given out in other distribution sites,” reads an email statement from the health authority.

Muecke advises people to be prepared in these cases because there could be something else also causing the problem. As for next steps, Muecke says there needs to be care for these individuals at every state of their path.

“We want to make sure we are providing them with as much support as possible. If people do happen to be ready to make a change, it’s important that those services be available in the moment. So trying to avoid people having to wait to get those services is important and that we also have a suite of services, as not everyone is ready for the same intervention,” says Muecke.

The RCMP reminds the public that with the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, people who experience or witness an overdose and call 911 are protected from charges related to possession of controlled substances and breach of conditions regarding simple possession.

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