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News Advertiser
MAY 3, 2017
www. NewsAdvertiser .com
Fentanyl rears its ugly head Sgt Jerry Nutbrown RCMP Ponderings - Vegreville Detachment Unfortunately there isn’t a light-hearted approach to this topic so this will be a fairly sombre and sobering article this
week. We have now seen the drug fentanyl locally at the street level. You may have seen news reports about deaths or overdoses which involve fentanyl but what exactly is it? Fentanyl is controlled substance, or drug, that is typically used as a pain reliever and is within the opioid group of drugs and can be prescribed by a physician. Opioids are drugs that act similar to opium derived substances such as heroin, but generally, opioids are synthetic. Some of the most popular opioid drugs that are abused are oxycodone, or oxy for short, methadone, percocet and Demerol. Opioids come in many different forms from pills to patches to liquids and have various concentrations or doses. These are the types of drugs that I believe are the target of the recent television ads about young people taking their parents medications. It certainly is one of the most commonly abused category of drugs that we have seen. There is also a further breakdown of the types of fentanyl such as carfentanyl and sufentanyl and these are more potent versions. There is endless information on the
Internet about opioids, their effects, etc. I won’t get into more specifics about it, but I will comment that it is a very powerful substance and death can easily occur as a result of an overdose. Ok, so it is a powerful drug and we have seen it in our area, now I will get into more of why it is an issue. As I had mentioned it can come in the form of a patch but it can also be in the form of powder. These form types are intended to make it easy to ingest and it is also readily absorbed through the skin and thus one of the biggest drug risk issues for law enforcement. Just by getting fentanyl on your skin can provide you with a dose. This dose could be strong enough to provide an overdose to the person and cause an immediate medical emergency. As mentioned, it is a powerful drug and by that I mean a very small amount of it is very potent. Many people are more inclined to abuse a pill or patch as those are usually of pharmaceutical grade and the product is very consistent in its manufacture and content. However, what we are starting to see locally is street level fentanyl that has been combined with other street drugs such as meth. The very real risk here is that the user has no idea of what is actually in the product they are consuming and overdoses can very easily occur. People not previously experienced in using fentanyl can easily overdose as they don’t know what the substance does to them or how much their bodies can tolerate. Our members here have had some training on fentanyl and how to handle it, but that only works if you know what it is you have in front of you. Accidental exposures can easily happen to emergency response personnel and it poses a real risk to all of our safety. Every frontline RCMP member in Alberta has had what is commonly known as Narcan, issued to us. This is not a fix nor does it resolve the issue that fentanyl is such a risk to us but it does provide a quick field treatment until we can get ourselves or the person that has taken fentanyl to the hospital for proper treatment. To this point in time we have only seen fentanyl within users of street drugs and as with any other illicit drug, the general public’s risk of exposure is extremely low. This is not a fun article to write but one that was necessary to educate readers about what is happening in our policing area and that the risks we hear about on the news are real. We will continue to work to enforce the laws on those that operate within the realm of drugs and we will also work to educate the public. There is no new warning to be issued regarding fentanyl, but keep yourselves informed through the media about what is happening with this substance. There is very good information being disseminated throughout the province so be aware and know that all drugs know no boundaries.