PROVINCEWIDE WARNING

Deaths linked to fentanyl soar

Law enforcement and health officials have dramatically increased the number of deaths linked to illicit fentanyl use in 2014, saying Wednesday the drug was the cause or a contributing factor in more than 100 fatalities in Alberta last year.

The amended count, up from a previous estimate of 61, came as authorities issued a provincewide warning about the drug, a powerful narcotic up to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, a provincial umbrella agency tasked with investigating serious and organized crime, has seized more than 14,000 tablets throughout the province since April 2014.

“It’s definitely a problem all over the province,” said Staff Sgt. Rod Klassen, commander of ALERT’s team in Lethbridge.

Although there are indications fentanyl is being pressed into pills locally, Klassen said authorities believe it’s being manufactured overseas and brought over in bulk by organized crime groups.

“It’s not a mom- and- pop operation,” he said.

Inroads police have made so far have pointed in that direction: in January, police in Saskatchewan and Alberta seized more than $ 8 million in drugs, including 3,000 fentanyl pills, in an investigation that targeted the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and the Fallen Saints, a so- called support club loyal to the HAs.

Fentanyl is a prescription painkiller used to treat chronic pain, but its high potency means it can be lethal in small doses if it’s not taken appropriately. Authorities are especially concerned people abusing fentanyl aren’t taking pharmaceutical- grade pills but are instead buying pills manufactured within illegal labs with no control over their dosage.

“When somebody is purchasing a street drug, they can never know what they’re getting,” said Dr. Mark Yarema, medical director of Alberta’s Poison and Drug Information Service.

The spike in fentanyl abuse coincides with the release of tamperproof oxycodone tablets called OxyNeo into the Canadian market in 2012.

Now that users have difficulty snorting or injecting the new pills, criminals are selling counterfeit oxycodone — called “green jellies” or “street oxy” — which actually contains fentanyl.

Tests of some fentanyl overdose patients are turning up other drugs — including xylazine, a veterinary drug commonly used as an anesthetic or sedative for horses and cattle, Yarema added.

As is the case with other drugs that become prone to abuse, Yarema said fentanyl users he has encountered while working in hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units come from a span of demographics.

“Not all of the users are the socalled drug addicts. Some of the individuals are taking these substances as party drugs,” he said.

Authorities believe it’s being manufactured overseas and brought over in bulk by organized crime groups.