drug alerts

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Drug alert and over­dose alerts

DRUG AND OVER­DOSE ALERTS WIN­NIPEG: Jan­u­ary 20, 2023

Cas­es of severe over­dose pre­sent­ing to hos­pi­tal (HSC) report­ing using meth — week of Jan.16, 2023

Reports indi­cate the sub­stance was sold as ​“meth” and brought about sud­den loss of con­scious­ness and quick, severe prob­lems breath­ing. No infor­ma­tion is cur­rent­ly avail­able con­firm­ing the com­po­nents of the sub­stances involved. Peo­ple were respon­sive to naloxone.

If you use drugs:

Call 911 (or your local emer­gency response num­ber) if you wit­ness or expe­ri­ence an over­dose. The Good Samar­i­tan Over­dose Pro­tec­tion Act will pro­tect those involved from drug pos­ses­sion charges or breach of probation/​pretrial release charges.

• Get nalox­one and over­dose train­ing before using – bring a friend

• Be aware that ben­zo­di­azepines don’t respond to nalox­one.

• Do not use drugs alone or behind a locked door. Have a des­ig­nat­ed respon­der: Stag­ger use with friends so some­one can respond/​call 911 if needed.

• If you are using alone con­sid­er call­ing the Nation­al Over­dose Pre­ven­tion Hot­line at 1−888−688−6677, where you will be con­nect­ed to a safe con­sump­tion vol­un­teer who stays on the line for 15 – 30 min­utes while you use the substance.

• Use a less direct route when you take drugs. Inject­ing a drug is the most direct and dan­ger­ous route.

• If you mix drugs, reduce the amount of each drug you take and use opi­oids before ben­zos or alco­hol. Use the most unpre­dictable drug first.

• Use one drug at a time, test your drugs every time by doing a small­er than usu­al test amount first.

• Wait before tak­ing anoth­er dose – some drugs take longer to take effect

• The amount of nalox­one in a take-home kit may not be enough to reverse very pow­er­ful over­dos­es, such as those caused by fen­tanyl-like drugs.

• If you inject do not share any injec­tion equip­ment (nee­dles, cook­ers, fil­ters, rinse). Ster­ile drug use sup­plies are avail­able from many places.

For com­mu­ni­ty agencies:

The Safer Bath­rooms Toolk­it pro­vides resources to assess and respond to the poten­tial risk of drug tox­i­c­i­ty events with­in facil­i­ty bathrooms.

DRUG AND OVER­DOSE ALERTS WIN­NIPEG: Decem­ber 19, 2022

Street drugs test­ed for fen­tanyl and ben­zo­di­azepines in Winnipeg

A sam­ple of a sub­stance sold as ​“unknown” that looked like a small orange peb­ble in Win­nipeg was test­ed by Get Your Drugs Test­ed ser­vices. This sam­ple was dat­ed on Decem­ber 7, 2022. It was test­ed by FTIR spec­trom­e­ter tech­nol­o­gy, which found to have a com­bi­na­tion of ery­thri­tol 65 – 70%, and fen­tanyl 30 – 35%. It was pos­i­tive for fen­tanyl and/​or fen­tanyl ana­logues on the fen­tanyl test strip. It was neg­a­tive for ben­zo­di­azepines on the ben­zo test strip. How­ev­er, it is sus­pect­ed that this sam­ple con­tains eti­zo­lam, a ben­zo drug class that does not trig­ger the ben­zo test strips.

Fen­tanyl is a very tox­ic opi­oid drug that can result in over­dose caus­ing res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion, uncon­scious­ness and death.

Eti­zo­lam is a thien­odi­azepine which is sim­i­lar to the ben­zo­di­azepine drug class. It has effects that depress the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem, these include seda­tion and skele­tal mus­cu­lar relax­ation. Eti­zo­lam is strong at low dos­es.

Ben­zos caus­es res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion and seda­tion and may cause a per­son to lose con­scious­ness. Because it is not an opi­oid, nalox­one does not work on it.

This sam­ple con­tains more than the aver­age amount of fen­tanyl test­ed by this ser­vice in Van­cou­ver and in com­bi­na­tion with pos­si­ble eti­zo­lam, there is a high­er risk for a com­plex over­dose. If pos­si­ble, con­sid­er start­ing with a small tester dose, not using alone and car­ry­ing naloxone.

The com­bi­na­tion of these two sub­stances can increase harms.

DRUG AND OVER­DOSE ALERTS WIN­NIPEG: Octo­ber 25, 2022

Com­mu­ni­ty agen­cies in cen­tral Win­nipeg report occur­rence of fatal drug tox­i­c­i­ty events Oct 21 and 22, 2022 and a spike in harms relat­ed to drug tox­i­c­i­ty over the same time frame.

Reports indi­cate the sub­stance was sold as ​“meth” and brought about unex­pect­ed loss of con­scious­ness and quick, severe impair­ment of res­pi­ra­to­ry func­tion. No infor­ma­tion is cur­rent­ly avail­able con­firm­ing the com­po­nents of the sub­stances involved.

DRUG AND OVER­DOSE ALERTS WIN­NIPEG: Octo­ber 12, 2022

Street drugs in Win­nipeg of con­cern and nov­el sub­stances: Para-Flu­o­ro­fen­tanyl and Isotonitazine.

A brown powder/​grainy substance seized in Win­nipeg in Sep­tem­ber 2022. Health Cana­da Drug Analy­sis Ser­vices has con­firmed the prod­uct to con­tain Para-Flu­o­ro­fen­tanyl, Fen­tanyl, a ben­zo­di­azepine named eti­zo­lam, caf­feine, and diphenhydramine

Coun­ter­feit Oxy­codone tablets: blue, round, ​“PER­CO­CET 5” on one side, scored on reverse were seized in Win­nipeg in August 2022. Health Cana­da Drug Analy­sis Ser­vices has con­firmed the prod­uct to con­tain a ben­z­im­i­da­zole opi­oid, name­ly Isotonitazene. 

Iso­toni­tazene is a syn­thet­ic opi­oid drug, con­sid­ered to be approx­i­mate­ly 500 times more tox­ic than morphine. 

Fen­tanyl is a very tox­ic opi­oid drug (approx­i­mate­ly 50 – 100 times more tox­ic than mor­phine) that can result in over­dose caus­ing res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion, uncon­scious­ness and death.

Para-flu­o­ro­fen­tanyl is a syn­thet­ic opi­oid relat­ed to fen­tanyl. There is lit­tle infor­ma­tion avail­able on the strength of this drug relat­ed to fen­tanyl, but it has been asso­ci­at­ed with increased opi­oid tox­i­c­i­ty in North America. 

Ben­zo­di­azepine (ben­zos) caus­es res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion and seda­tion and may cause a per­son to lose con­scious­ness. Because it is not an opi­oid, nalox­one does not work on it. Ben­zo­di­azepines can be more dan­ger­ous when com­bined with opioids. 

Health Canada’s Drug Analy­sis Ser­vice (DAS) test ille­gal drugs seized by Cana­di­an law enforce­ment agen­cies. For more infor­ma­tion on drugs ana­lyzed by DAS, see Ana­lyzed Drug Report — Drug Analy­sis Ser­vice | Pub­lic Health Infobase — Pub­lic Health Agency of Canada

Octo­ber 6, 2021

Street drugs test­ed for fen­tanyl and ben­zo­di­azepines in Winnipeg

A sam­ple of a sub­stances sold as ​“unknown” that looked like a orange chunk in Win­nipeg was test­ed by Get Your Drug Test­ed ser­vices. This sam­ple, test­ed by FTIR spec­trom­e­ter tech­nol­o­gy, was found to have a com­bi­na­tion of Ery­thri­tol 75 – 80% (a sug­ar-based filler), Caf­feine 15 – 20%, Fen­tanyl 5 – 10% This sam­ple also test­ed pos­i­tive for Ben­zo­di­azepines by test strip. 

Fen­tanyl is a very tox­ic opi­oid drug that can result in over­dose caus­ing res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion, uncon­scious­ness and death.

Ben­zo­di­azepine (ben­zos) caus­es res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion and seda­tion and may cause a per­son to lose con­scious­ness. Because it is not an opi­oid, nalox­one does not work on it.

The com­bi­na­tion of these two sub­stances can increase harms.

Unkown Orange chunk

Octo­ber 6, 2021

Street drugs test­ed for fen­tanyl and ben­zo­di­azepines in Winnipeg

A sam­ple of a sub­stances sold as ​“unknown” that looked like green gran­ules in Win­nipeg was test­ed by Get Your Drug Test­ed ser­vices. This sam­ple, test­ed by FTIR spec­trom­e­ter tech­nol­o­gy, was found to have a com­bi­na­tion of Dimethyl Sul­fone 60 – 65% (a filler), uncer­tain oil 20 – 25%, Fen­tanyl 15 – 20%, an uncer­tain match like­ly to be a fen­tanyl ana­logue 5 – 10%. This sam­ple also test­ed pos­i­tive for Ben­zo­di­azepines by test strip. 

Fen­tanyl is a very tox­ic opi­oid drug that can result in over­dose caus­ing res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion, uncon­scious­ness and death.

Ben­zo­di­azepine (ben­zos) caus­es res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sion and seda­tion and may cause a per­son to lose con­scious­ness. Because it is not an opi­oid, nalox­one does not work on it.

The com­bi­na­tion of these two sub­stances can increase harms.

Unknown Green Granules

If you use drugs:

Call 911 (or your local emer­gency response num­ber) if you wit­ness or expe­ri­ence an over­dose. The Good Samar­i­tan Over­dose Pro­tec­tion Act will pro­tect those involved from drug pos­ses­sion charges or breach of pro­ba­tion/pre-tri­al release charges.

• Get nalox­one and over­dose train­ing before using – bring a friend
• Be aware that ben­zo­di­azepines don’t respond to naloxone.
• Do not use drugs alone or behind a locked door. Have a des­ig­nat­ed respon­der: Stag­ger use with friends so some­one can respond/​call 911 if needed. 
• If you are using alone con­sid­er call­ing the Nation­al Over­dose Pre­ven­tion Hot­line at 1−888−688−6677, where you will be con­nect­ed to a safe con­sump­tion vol­un­teer who stays on the line for 15 – 30 min­utes while you use the substance.
• Use a less direct route when you take drugs. Inject­ing a drug is the most direct and dan­ger­ous route. 
• If you mix drugs, reduce the amount of each drug you take and use opi­oids before ben­zos or alco­hol. Use the most unpre­dictable drug first.
• Use one drug at a time, test your drugs every time by doing a small­er than usu­al test amount first.
• Wait before tak­ing anoth­er dose – some drugs take longer to take effect
• The amount of nalox­one in a take-home kit may not be enough to reverse very pow­er­ful over­dos­es, such as those caused by fen­tanyl-like drugs.
• If you inject do not share any injec­tion equip­ment (nee­dles, cook­ers, fil­ters, rinse). Ster­ile drug use sup­plies are avail­able from many places.