Street drug found in blood of 9 sudden deaths, N.B. medical officer of health warns

The Department of Health is warning about a street drug called bromazolam that was found in the blood samples ofnine sudden deaths in New Brunswick over the past five months.

Bromazolam, a drug not approved for medical use in any country, is a type of benzodiazepine.

Also known as benzos, they are prescribed for sedation or anxiety management, said Dr. Yves Lger, the province's acting chief medical officer of health, in an interview.

He said when the coroner's office investigates a sudden death, blood tests are doneto checkfor drugs.

Aninvestigationintothe deaths isstill underway, according to an emailed statement fromthe Department of Justice and Public Safety. Spokesperson Judy Dsalliers said the department can confirmthe drug was present, but doesn't yet know if itwas the cause of death in these cases.

Lger said most of the deaths were in the Moncton area, but said he doesn'thave further details, such asthe ages of the individuals who died.

Measures to reduce risk

One thing about the drug that is "unfortunate," said Lger, is there is no way to detect it and there's no control over what ends up in street drugs.

He said the information is being released to the publicto inform and raise awareness.

There are measures that people who use drugscan take to reduce their risk, he said, such asnot taking multiple drugs at one time, never using drugs alone, only taking a small amount to start and having naloxone on hand.

Naloxone doesn't have any effect on benzos, but it can help reverse the effects of opiates like fentanyl, which was also detected in some of the sudden death cases.

Lger said he doesn't know how muchof thedrug would need to be consumed to produceadverse effects. He said that's one of the difficult parts when dealing with a drug that isn't used for medical purposes.

"The other complicating factor, as well, from what I see in the literature, and what we've seen here in New Brunswick, is it's often times found with other drugs, so it becomes even harder to separate out what kind of effects bromazolam is having on an individual."

'You just don't know what's in it,' police say

Cpl. Hans Ouellette of the New Brunswick RCMP said police are aware of the presence ofbromazolam in the province, but he doesn't have statistics onits prevalence.

Ouellette said because there are so many dangerous drugs in circulation in the province, "there's no real way to know if what a person is consuming may contain one of those highly dangerous drugs."

"You're rolling the dice on your life when you're taking anything that is, you know, a controlled substance or an illegal substance, because you just don't know what's in it," he said.