Animal tranquilizers are being mixed with fentanyl in Canada

Opioid overdose deaths in Canada are falling, but there's growing concerns on a certain veterinary tranquilizer being cut into fentanyl and other opioids.

While data shows the number of overdose deaths is falling in Canada, there’s a growing concern over the detection of an animal tranquilizer being found in the unregulated drug supply.

It’s called medetomidine and is a potent sedative used primarily by veterinarians.

A recent alert by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control says opioids like fentanyl are now being often mixed with the sedative.

But it’s not only showing up in British Columbia.

“Medetomidine itself is used by veterinarians and we don’t have approval to be using that in humans and we’ve started to see that it is showing up in the unregulated drug supply,” said Dr. Emily Austin, the medical director of the Ontario Poison Centre.

According to Toronto’s Drug Check Services, the number of illicit drugs that medetomidine is showing up in could be at about 80 per cent, even higher than the 50 per cent B.C. public health officials say they’re seeing.

The side effects associated with the drug vary.

“Medetomidine has been associated with hallucinations and dropping blood pressure, and very low or slow pulses,” said Dr. Karen McDonald with Toronto’s Drug Check Services. “We first detected it in the fentanyl samples that we were checking here in Toronto in December of 2023.”