Police executed Project Nexus as a typical drug bust but the mid-March raid yielded a drug whose abuse law enforcers had never seen before.
The operation came to a head in Dryden on Mar. 14, intercepting illicit drugs and alcohol heading to remote northern communities through the mail.
Amid alcohol and marijuana, officers found the package contained 96 pills of gabapentin, a neuropathic pain medication commonly prescribed to control seizures.
Nishnawbe Aski Police Service Sgt. Jackie George said it was the first time her force had seized the drug through a warrant and to her knowledge, it was the first such seizure in Canada.
“I hadn’t heard of it before,” she said.
“As with any kind of prescription medication, it’s pretty much all across the map. It’s just that before this, it hadn’t been found to be trafficked.”
Gabapentin’s side effects include dizziness, double vision, diarrhea, slurred speech, and loss of consciousness.
Project Nexus was a $100,000 operation and as NAPS prepares to launch its education component, gabapentin will be included in website and print materials for the first time.
The Was It Worth It campaign launching later this month will highlight the relationship between drug abuse and violence.
George said the inclination gabapentin abusers have to fall unconscious can make them a target of violence.
“That could leave someone vulnerable to a criminal act. If we educate people and let them know this is what it looks like and this is what the side effects are, you’re opening yourselves to a dangerous situation if you take it without a doctor’s prescription.”
