RCMP preparing N.L. officers in fight against fentanyl

The province's RCMP force is taking steps to equip its officers with extra knowledge and tools to fight the encroaching threat of the highly addictive drugfentanyl.

The synthetic opioid, 100times more potent than heroin, can be prescribedas pain medication but its abuse as a street drughas swept across Canada, killing 488 people in B.C. this year alone.

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Newfoundland and Labrador has so far been spared such sobering numbers. But as street drugs typically follow a west-to-east trend, police here aren't waiting around for the crisis to hit.

"In preparation for that,we're doing some training with ourfront-line officers,"said Staff Sgt. StevenConohan, the head of the province's Clandestine Drug Lab Team.

That training, mainly computer-based, is educating officers on how to identify the signs and symptoms of an overdose, as well as how to treat overdoses with a nasal spray version of the fentanyl antidote naloxone.

"We have roughly 500 kits that are currently on orderthat will be distributed throughout the province," Conohan told CBC Radio's theCentral Morning Show.

Those noloxonekits are in addition to the 1,200 recently fundedby the provincial government.

While the kits will be distributed this fall, where they will be made available is still being decided.

• Naloxone opioid overdose antidote kits coming soon to N.L.

Front-line officers will also soon receive gloves and other equipment in case they need to handle fentanyl.

"We're equipping them with personal protective equipmentbecause it can be absorbed trans-dermally, through the skin. So there's a very real concern,"Conohan said.

Increasing street seizures

Conohan said officers have been seizing fentanyl "sporadically" in the province.

"This is certainly a new thing for us to be aware of and deal with," he said.

"It's not relegated to any specific area, we're seizing it throughout [the island]as well as in Labrador."

This is certainly a new thing for us to be aware of and deal with.- Steve Conohan

Officers are getting hold of it in patch and powder forms, and also as pills sometimes mislabled as the less-potent Oxycontin.

"Mostconcerning of course is fentanylshowing up in pill form, because no one knows what the concentration of the drug is in the pillsand, of course, it'svery high risk," Conohan said.

"Even if you're an opioid abuser, there's a very real risk of overdose and possibly even death."

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The latest tally from Health Minister John Haggiebrings the number of fentanyl deaths this year in the province to five. Conohan said the threat of fentanyl isn't far from RCMP minds as the force continues to try tostay ahead of the drug.

"It puts a lot of pressure on us, and we want to remain vigilant in making sure both our front-line officers and the public are safe," he said.