Deadly carfentanil means 'everyone is at risk' in Winnipeg

One of the most potent street drugs might have found its way into Winnipeg and one university professor isstressing how dangerous it is.

"When we're talking aboutcarfentanil,a grain of it is enough to be toxic," saidShawnBugden, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba's faculty of pharmacy.

"Anybody but an elephant is at risk of a carfentanil overdose. Everyone isat risk."

A single tablet that someone is sort of experimenting with taking maykill them.-ShawnBugden

Because the drug is so tiny and powerful, it's difficult to safely determinea non-lethal amount.

"Even hard-core drug addicts may get many, many times the dose they're used to taking and could be subject to overdose,"Bugden said.

The police service's tactical team raided ahotel roomin the West End of the city on Monday and seized1,477 blotter tabs that theysuspect containcarfentanil, although laboratory testresults are still pending.

Carfentanil,one of the most potent versions of the highly-addictivefentanyl,is asyntheticopioidoriginally designed to immobilize large animalslike moose and elephants.

• Deadly elephanttranquilizercarfentanilcould be in Winnipeg, police testing seized tabs
• Elephant sedativecarfentanilbecomes deadly street drug
• Deadlyopioidcarfentanilbound for Calgary seized in Vancouver
• Health authorities concerned about elephanttranquilizerhitting the streets

When it gets on the streets, there's no way to tell how much is safe,Bugden said.

"You can't, by eye, tell the difference between a toxic dose and a non-toxic dose and people are relying on drug dealers to do the preparation."

One hundredtimes more potent thanfentanyl and 10,000 time stronger than morphine,carfentanilhas beeninching its way to Canada,leaving people dead or withserious health problems in its wake. Users have been known to take itintravenously orabsorb itthrough the skin in a patch, or take it orally like atablet.

"You just don't know how much of the drug is in there, so a single tablet that someone is sort of experimenting with taking maykill them," Bugden said.

Growing dependence on opioids

Fentanyl,when used appropriately, is an important drug in many treatments, butsyntheticopioidsknown asanalogs aremanufactured in labs by makingsmall changes to thefentanylmolecule.

Labsare the big problemand there are dozens of them around,Bugden said.

"Regulatory bodies are having trouble keeping up with the hobby chemists that are creating newfentanyls," he said, andpolice can only do so much as well, so it's difficult to tackle the problem.

While you can stress the dangers and urge people to nottake illicit drugs,it's naive to think that will happen, Bugden said.

Ultimately, society needs to take a long, hard look at its growing dependence on prescription opioids, he said, noting there has been a four-fold increase in the amount offentanyland otheropioidsbeing used in Manitoba over the past decade.

The root of the problem is people who are introduced to opioids throughprescriptions and then get hooked and move toillicit versions, Bugden said.

"We need to do a better job of thinking carefully about when and how we useopioidsas part of the solution."

In the meantime, he is pleading with anyone who considers takingcarfentanil to not be alone. If something goes wrong, someone needs to be there to call 911.