THUNDER BAY -- The prescription drug fentanyl is a growing concern for city police amid warnings its abuse has become a crisis in jurisdictions across Canada.
Officials with the Thunder Bay Police Service say the national fentanyl emergency hasn’t hit crisis levels in Thunder Bay yet, but they are expecting the problem to grow.
Thunder Bay Police Service staff-Sgt. Ryan Gibson said officers are receiving a lot of reports regarding powdered form of fentanyl from outside the district, and they’re concerned it’s heading this way.
“We do have fentanyl here in the community,” Gibson said Thursday afternoon.
“Last year, we had a couple of significant seizures and what we are seeing, right now, is the patches and our biggest concern at this point is the pills.”
Dealers are pressing fentanyl with an illegal press, so the pills are being represented as another drug such as Percocets.
Gibson said people are producing these pills, which are strictly profit driven, so there’s no safe guards in place and people don’t know what they are getting.
“What happens is the user takes these pills assuming they are Percocets but it’s fentanyl and the problem with fentanyl…it’s a deadly drug,” Gibson said.
“The biggest issue with fentanyl is that it’s a very potent pain killer, and when it’s used properly and prescribed by a medical practitioner it’s a wonderful thing.”
Gibson added the problem with fentanyl is it’s cheap and when it’s unregulated and brought in from another country people are receiving a drug, which is causing them to overdose.
“It’s as simple as that and if you’re taking something you don’t know what it is or you think it’s something else it’s going to kill you.”
The statistics for fentanyl deaths in Thunder Bay have gone down from seven in 2013, and five in 2014 and 2015.
Gibson said he doesn’t know the numbers for 2016 yet.
“We are extremely concerned, we know there’s an opioid addictions issues in the northwest as there is throughout the country,” he said
“We know that the people who supply these (drugs) are driven strictly by profit and at the end of the day it’s not a big deal when someone passes away, but that’s a huge concern for us.”
Gibson said this has to be addressed from a federal level, this is going to take a lot of planning and various experts.
This is not just a policing issue, various health agencies have to be on board, and there needs to be funding to get the treatment for those in need.
From a law enforcement point of view Gibson said police need to find a way to shut down those dealers.
Gibson wants to remind people with what’s out there now, with what these drugs can do, you are “taking a chance with your life and there’s no need to do that.”
