Deadly drug carfentanil back in London, police, health officials say

Police have found more evidence of the shockingly powerful illegal drug carfentanil in London, authorities said in a statement Thursday.

Health Canada tested samples of drugs seized in recent investigations in the city between March 20 and April 8. Samples from 10 drug busts came back positive for carfentanil.

Police note in the statement that there was a spike in overdose deaths in the Forest City from March 30 to April 5. Five people died from suspected overdoses during that period.

“While we can’t say for certain that carfentanil is the cause of these deaths, we need to make sure that those who use substances are aware this is on our streets and that they take the needed precautions,” London police Chief John Pare said in the statement.

“If you know someone who could be exposed, please make sure they have a naloxone kit and that they know the signs of an overdose.”

Chris Mackie, the region’s top public health official, added that the results of the tests are “a chilling confirmation that we’ve entered a new phase in the local opioid crisis.

“Now, more than ever, people who use these substances need to know that more dangerous and potent poisons are on our streets. When they use, it’s critical that they’re not alone and that naloxone is close by,” Mackie said.

Carfentanil is normally used by veterinarians to tranquilize very large animals such as elephants. Police say it is 100 times more powerful than fentanyl and 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.

Police say they have seized a total of 195 grams of carfentanil since 2017.

Naloxone is a medication that can be used to reverse the effects of some drug overdoses. It is available in two forms, nasal spray and injection. Naloxone kits can be picked up for free at many local pharmacies and the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

FENTANYL FACTOBOX

WHAT ARE OPIOIDS?

• Opioids are highly addictive painkillers, also called narcotics, made from opium poppies or synthesized in a lab.
• There are many different kinds of prescription and illicit opioids with varying strengths, including morphine, heroin, hydromorphone, oxycodone and fentanyl.
• Prescription opioids such as OxyContin can be abused by patients or diverted to the streets, where they may be smoked, crushed and snorted or injected by drug users.
• Opioids have been implicated in more than 2,000 deaths nationwide in the first half of 2018 alone.
• In the London area, there were 42 opioid-related deaths between January and October 2018.

WHAT IS FENTANYL?

• Fentanyl is a hyper-potent, lab-made opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine. As little as two milligrams of the drug, the equivalent of about four grains of salt, can kill a first-time user. It easily can be mixed into other drugs and is difficult to detect.

HOW DOES FENTANYL GET ON OUR STREETS?

• Prescription gel fentanyl patches used to manage severe chronic pain can be sold on the streets, where the drug is smoked, ingested or dried into a powder.
• Illegal powdered fentanyl, made in overseas labs and smuggled into Canada, can be cut into other drugs or pressed into tablets made to look like prescription pills.
• Organized crime plays a role in selling and distributing illicit fentanyl, Middlesex London Health Unit chief medical officer of health Chris Mackie says.

WHAT MAKES FENTANYL ATTRACTIVE TO DRUG USERS?

• Sometimes drug users end up with fentanyl accidentally when it’s cut into another drug they want. Other times they seek it out, said Ken Lee, lead physician at Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex’s addiction medicine clinic. It’s powerful and cheaper, he said. “The people I see know that they’re using fentanyl,” Lee said. His patients report pharmaceutical-grade hydromorphone goes for $60 a point, one-tenth of a gram, on the street. “A point of fentanyl is much stronger and will last a lot longer. It’s cheaper than buying the known pharmaceutical-grade pills,” Lee said.

WHAT MAKES FENTANYL USEFUL TO DRUG DEALERS?

• Non-users might wonder, why mix in a drug that could kill your customers? For dealers, the benefit is that slipping fentanyl into another kind of illegal drug can increase the high buyers get from using it, and mixing in fentanyl also lets dealers stretch out their supply of the more expensive drugs — say, heroin — that they’re selling.

WHAT IS CARFENTANIL?

• Carfentanil is a chemical relative to fentanyl. The drug is intended as an elephant tranquilizer and is 10,000 times stronger than morphine, 4,000 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than fentanyl.