Reduce grassland harm (PHR) in Saskatoon is warning of a new substance, suspected to be methincluded and tested positive for both fentanyl and benzodiazepine.
Kayla Demong, chief executive officer of PHR, said the substance was something she had never seen before and was brought in on Tuesday by someone accessing their service.
She said it was a slightly yellowish, off-white color.
“With fentanyl and benzodiazepines are becoming more of a concern here, we monitor them and test them so we can provide education to the community about safer ways of using those substances so that we reduce the risk of overdose,” says Demong.
“We know that concern has grown over the past few years, as we have seen an increasing number of drug overdose deaths in our province. And the numbers coming out for the first half of this year are showing that we will probably surpass last year’s numbers.”
In Saskatchewan, drug overdose deaths have more than tripled over the past six years, with 376 deaths reported by the Saskatchewan Bureau of Investigation last year compared with 109 in 2016.
Fentanyl was the main cause of death, with 257 fentanyl-related deaths reported in 2021 compared with nine reported in 2016.
Of the fentanyl-related deaths in 2021, 59 occurred in Saskatoon while 159 were reported in Regina.
Demong says drug testing is fairly limited, noting that their test strips only determine if a chemical is in a substance, not how much is in it.
She added that one of the main obstacles was being denied provincial funding – as a result they had to work within limited hours and struggled to keep the doors open.
Troy Davies, director of public affairs for Medavie Health Services West, said they are seeing the increasing potency of the illicit drugs they have treated patients for the past two years.
“How we say it, is how much Narcan we actually give patients when we transport them. So normally five years ago, one dose for us, we injected intravenously, was enough. (Recently) we had patients receive up to 8 doses of Narcan while being transported to the hospital, which is something we’ve never seen before,” said Davies.
He added that increased overdose is a trend that is being seen across Canada.
“There’s really no textbook for this, since the COVID lockdown we’ve seen the numbers skyrocket.”
Morgan Hackl, fire chief for the Saskatoon Fire Department, said the number of calls they respond to regarding overcrowding continues to trend higher.
“In 2020, we saw a 90% year-over-year spike,” Hackl said. “By 2021, this number has doubled and we’ve seen a further 58 percent increase in overdoses.”
He noted that by 2022, overdose calls had increased by 7%. So far, they have answered 466 calls for overdoses this year.
Hackl said it will take a lot of work if we go back to pre-pandemic numbers.
“It will take a whole community approach. It is not only end-to-end responders, emergency responders, but also working with different levels of government to provide support related to mental health and addiction.
“The homelessness crisis across Canada is at an all-time high, so what we’re learning is this community-wide approach – working with social services, working with health , working with different levels of city government to actually work to support a safe and happy community – needs to happen. “
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