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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
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Volume 56 • Issue 4
Fentanyl’s strength, unpredictability make taking it like Russian roulette BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
WINTER GAMES COMING TO THOMPSON SPORTS - PAGE 3
EXCHANGE IS EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME COLUMNISTS - PAGE 5
BASKETBALL TEAMS CLAIM THREE TITLES SPORTS - PAGE 7
Addictions experts, medical professionals and law enforcement hosted concerned citizens for a community forum on fentanyl at R.D. Parker Collegiate’s Letkemann Theatre Jan. 19, providing information about the much-talkedabout drug and other opioids as well as setting the record straight about how much of a risk it poses. The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba’ Dr. Sheri Fandrey offered a presentation on fentanyl, which is a painkiller used for medical purposes that is about 100 times stronger than morphine, as well as related drugs like sufentanil, which is 10 times stronger and mainly used for palliative care, as well as carfentanil, a drug intended for veterinary purposes that is 100 times stronger than fentanyl, or 10,000 times stronger than morphine. “Under the care of a health care professional, fentanyl is a safe drug but it’s also produced and sold illegally and that’s a different story,” Fandrey said. In the case of new or used fentanyl patches that are cut up into pieces known as “Chiclets,” the level of the drug present can vary greatly. “It was kind of like a game of Russian roulette where one little piece that somebody might buy might have no drug left in it whereas another corner might have a lethal dose of fentanyl in it so really there’s a lot of uncertainty.” The strength of the powdered form that is becoming the predominant type of fentanyl in Winnipeg is dependent on the mixing abilities of the manufacturers. Fandrey said police
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham From left to right, Thompson RCMP Const. Uriah Butler, Dr. Sheri Fandrey of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and Patti Baird-Millar of the Northern Regional Health Authority during a community forum on fentanyl at R.D. Parker Collegiate Jan. 19. in Winnipeg told her that fentanyl powder is usually diluted with icing sugar or something similar in about a 1-to-100 ratio. “For anyone in the audience who bakes, you can imagine taking a teaspoonful of baking soda and trying to disperse it evenly into five cups of flour,” said Fandrey. Another issue making fentanyl dangerous is the fact that it has been found in non-opioid street drugs as well. “We’re finding that it’s present in methamphetamine, in cocaine, in MDMA, any of the forms of MDMA - molly, MDMA, ecstasy, doesn’t matter - possibly marijuana,” said Fandrey. “There haven’t been any laboratory-confirmed cases of fentanyl being added to marijuana. There have been some random kind of anecdotes that that might be happening. “ The apparent lack of concern that some drug dealers may have about
fentanyl’s lethality is also troubling, she said. “With fentanyl and carfentanil, it’s the first time that they don’t really seem to care that they’re killing their customers,” Fandrey said. A million doses of fentanyl would fit in a shoebox, Fandrey says, while a million doses of carfentanil would fit in a space the size of a golf ball. As little as two milligrams of fentanyl could be a fatal dose for someone who doesn’t use opioids, while 20 micrograms of carfentanil, less than the weight of a single snowflake crystal, could trigger an overdose. “It’s sadly the people who don’t intend to use fentanyl who are more likely to die from it,” she said. Symptoms of an overdose include cold, clammy skin and shallow breathing as well as signs of intoxication and severe sleepiness. If you suspect someone has had an
overdose you should call emergency medical services immediately and administer naloxone if you have it. Since naloxone’s only effect is to block the effects of opioids, there is no harm if it’s given to someone who isn’t having an overdose. Fandrey cautions that having naloxone present should not make anyone feel safe, however. “It buys you 20 to 30 minutes to get a person to a hospital and really that’s all it does,” she said. “You keep a person alive long enough so that they can get medical treatment.” During a question-andanswer session following Fandrey’s presentation, Const. Uriah Butler, the acting non-commissioned officer in charge of the general investigative section at the Thompson RCMP detachment, said police have not encountered any fentanyl overdoses in Thompson, while Thompson Fire &
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Emergency Services Deputy Chief Mike Bourgon said they had only received some calls where fentanyl use was suspected. “We’ve increased our dose of Narcan so that we’re better prepared in case that it does come,” he said. Thompson MLA Kelly Bindle said people who work with addictions are getting word from people on the street that fentanyl is around. Dr. Michael Isaac, chief medical officer of health with the Northern Regional Health Authority, said the province is working on developing better regional statistics but that fentanyl overdoses in Manitoba were higher in 2015. “I can say from a provincial perspective, overdoses from any type of drug, we have about 150 per year and that would be deaths from any type of drug,” Isaac said. “When you go back and look at whether there’s fentanyl in the blood of those folks on autopsy, it’s been pretty stable over the past six or seven years except starting 2015. It doubled. It went from about 15 to 29. The 2016 numbers aren’t in yet so we’re kind of waiting and seeing what’s going to be there. We think that it’s going to be higher.” Anecdotally, he hasn’t heard about an increase in opioid overdoses in the province’s north. “When I’ve asked, especially nurses and physicians across the north, if they’ve seen an increase in opioid overdoses, the answer is, ‘No, we’ve always had some opioid overdoses and drug overdoses in the north,’” Isaac said. “At this point we don’t think it’s higher than we would expect but we do need some more solid information on that.”
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