37 www.rnca.ca Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association Originally published on May 13, 2017 by Ariana Kelland, CBC News They knew it was coming. For more than a year, outreach workers waited for the day that fentanyl — an opioid that is about 100 times more potent than morphine — would overwhelm the drug-taking community in Newfoundland and Labrador.That day — or rather week — came in April 2017, during which Eastern Health revealed at a news conference that the deadly drug was suspected in 15 overdoses and one death on the northeast Avalon. The synthetic opioid can be prescribed as pain medication, but its abuse as a street drug has swept across Canada, killing more than 1,000 people. Drug deaths: 2013-2015 According to statistics from the chief medical examiner, fentanyl played a role in two deaths in 2013. In 2014, fentanyl was cited as a cause for three deaths. By 2015, the number had climbed to five. According to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Newfoundland reported five accidental or undetermined fentanyl-implicated deaths, between from 1997 to 2013. One death was an overdose due to fentanyl alone, while four other deaths involved other drugs.All cases involved fentanyl patches. August 2016 The Newfoundland and Labrador government announces it will supply 1,200 kits containing naloxone — a drug that reverses overdose effects — province-wide.The 1,200 takehome kits, available free of charge, contain naloxone along with items needed to administer it, like latex gloves, single-use syringes and alcohol swabs. September 2016 A sweeping raid of Vikings Motorcycle clubhouses and their alleged members turned up 27 grams of powder sold as heroin. But police said it actually contained 3.6 per cent fentanyl. Police heralded Project Bombard, which involved charges of murder and drug trafficking, as having stopped the Hells Angels from gaining a foothold in the province. November 2016 OperationTitanium saw guns, drugs and other weapons worth about $750,000 seized from theAvalon Peninsula. Four people were charged, including a man and woman in Pouch Cove, a man from St. John's and another from Montreal. The next month, police said lab tests determined 252 tablets seized were fentanyl. January 2017 Contraband pills manufactured to look like OxyContin were discovered on the Burin Peninsula.The RCMP warned the pills contained fentanyl, a drug that will give a similar high, but is much stronger. April 2017 Eastern Health holds a news conference warning of 15 overdoses and one death on the northeast Avalon, over the course of two weeks. Patients reported to doctors that they believed they were taking heroin prior to overdosing. There were some cases involving cocaine and Percocet, according to the RNC. Hours after the health authority made a public plea for users to be extra cautious, a mother of three boys overdosed. Niki Chapman, 39, died in a home on Empire Avenue. She was the second reported overdose from the same cluster of drugs. (See Page 39 ‘Mother of 3 among fentanyl-related deaths in St. John's area’ for full story) May 2017 The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit announces two men have been arrested in relation to a drug seizure on a quiet street in the east end of St. John's. The following afternoon, neighbours were told to stay inside their homes as police searched a bungalow on Beauford Place. Laboratory testing later revealed that fentanyl had been mixed in with the heroin. On May 4, police seized heroin during a traffic stop in the east end of St. John's. Officers believed the small amount of drugs may have contained fentanyl.The seized drugs were sent for analysis. What's next? Tree Walsh, who has been warning of the drug for years, described this wave of overdoses as "the thin edge of the wedge. "In an interview inApril 2017, Walsh said the province and outreach workers need to be prepared, adding she and volunteers with the Safe Access Works Program have been busy distributing clean needles and instructing people on how to use naloxone.The province, meanwhile, is determining how to expand access to kits, where the kits should go, and how to educate the public on the dangers of the drug. www.cbc.ca FENTANYL IN NEWFOUNDLAND: TIMELINE OF A POWERFUL KILLER DRUG Christopher Smith, the local site co-ordinator for the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network, passed out information sheets on fentanyl in downtown St. John's on May 5, 2017. (Ariana Kelland/CBC) continued
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==