New opioid 'never approved for human consumption' spreads from Toronto to Thunder Bay, prompting alert
CBC
A drug alert has been issued in Thunder Bay, Ont., over a toxic substance first found in Toronto earlier this fall.
The drug, called cychlorphine, is a synthetic opioid that was never clinally approved to be sold on the market.
NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC) issued the warning on Wednesday, saying cychlorphine was identified in what was sold as a blue Percocet tablet.
“These counterfeit pills mimic pharmacy-issued tablets in terms of colour, size and stamp numbers or markings on them,” said Brittany D’Angelo, director of mental health and substance use programs at NWCHC.
“It was never approved for human consumption, so its true effects and strengths are unknown, but we presume it to resemble those of other potent opioids like fentanyl.”
The Thunder Bay district continues to have the highest opioid-related death rate in the province, according to the latest report from Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner.
It's more than four times the provincial average, at 39.75 per 100,000 population versus 8.35 per 100,000 population.
The city’s only supervised consumption site, which was run by NWCHC, was forced to close earlier this year due to new provincial rules on how close sites can be to schools and child-care settings.
However, people can still get their drugs tested at the organization’s mobile outreach van, which provides support services throughout town.
“We know most of our substances come from outside of town and that things that we see in the bigger cities make their way here,” D’Angelo said.
“We're seeing more and more synthetic opioids that are even stronger than fentanyl showing up in the supply, which increases risk of overdose.”
These include benzodiazepines, animal tranquillizers “and other cutting agents [used to dilute a drug] in the unregulated supply,” she explained.
NorWest’s drug analyzer can detect harmful contaminants and unexpected ingredients in the substances people have purchased. The goal is to help people who use drugs make safer, more informed choices about what they’re consuming.
The device uses Raman laser technology to scan substances, either conducting trace scans — using a tiny sample of the substance — or bulk scans, where the substance is scanned through a clear bag.
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