Prepared under proper regulations by experienced health professionals, fentanyl is actually a very useful pain-relief drug, said an RN with the Turning Point in Red Deer.
Prepared under proper regulations by experienced health professionals, fentanyl is actually a very useful pain-relief drug, said an RN with the Turning Point in Red Deer.
However, it doesn't take very much of the street version of the drug to deliver a potentially deadly dose, said Sarah Fleck, an overdose prevention nurse.
"It's such a strong drug that it takes a tiny amount to kill somebody," said Fleck, who has 14 years of nursing experience, nine of which have been spent working with vulnerable populations.
"A normal healthy adult would have a fatal overdose with two milligrams of fentanyl."
In terms of the illicit drug trade, fentanyl is a relative newcomer, she said.
In 2012, a pharmaceutical drug called OxyContin, which is an opioid pain medication, was introduced. Eventually, the drug was finding its way onto the streets, where addicts would inject it for a powerful high. So the pharmaceutical company that developed OxyContin changed the drug's formulation so it could no longer be injected, she said.
"Unfortunately, because the drug companies made that change, that didn't fix the people who were addicted to drugs. It only forced them to look for another option."
So before long, fentanyl began to appear.
"It is a really strong opiate — about 50-100 times greater in strength than heroin or morphine," she said, adding that fentanyl has become an increasing public health concern in recent years.
"It's used for a lot of different medical reasons."
Fentanyl prepared by medical professionals serves as a good option to provide relief for patients who are suffering from a high level of pain. But the fentanyl that's finding its way onto the streets tends to come from China, where pharmacies sell online and ship around the world — including to Canada — formulations of the drug for a cost of about $12,000 for one kilogram of fentanyl powder, she said.
The problem with that is the drug is not manufactured with proper regulatory oversights in place, and is later further processed by untrained street-level chemists before finally being distributed to addicts who have no idea what they're actually getting, she said.
While a user who has built up a tolerance might be able to handle a slightly higher dose, a person with no tolerance who makes the regrettable decision to experiment is far more susceptible to a fatal overdose. Also, since fentanyl on the streets is not properly prepared, its dosing is inconsistent, meaning a pill one day might not lead to serious harm while another pill the next day could be that fatal dose, she said.
That unpredictability in dosing is the most concerning problem with fentanyl. It would be like trying to precisely make the exact same baking recipe using different amounts of varying ingredients every time, she said.
Additionally, the drug is being mixed into other substances like heroin to boost their potency to new heights, which has the potential to yield an unexpected — and undesired — surprise for users, she said.
When asked how many Albertans have fallen victim to fentanyl, Fleck told the Round Up statistics are not very complete because the provincial government has not yet declared a state of emergency over the issue.
"We do know that 274 deaths occurred in 2015 in Alberta," she said.
"Those are deaths specifically associated with fentanyl."
According to the provincial government's website, there were only six known fentanyl-related deaths in 2011. However, those numbers have consistently been rising dramatically since.
To curb the rise of fentanyl-related deaths, the provincial government funded eight harm reduction agencies across Alberta last July, including Turning Point, to begin the distribution of naloxone kits, said Fleck.
"It's a medication that goes into the brain where the opiates are and pulls the opiates off the brain's receptors. It helps people restore their ability to breathe and temporarily pulls them back from an overdose."
The Sundre RCMP detachment's Const. Val Dennis was recently presenting at an Olds Rural Crime Watch Association meeting in Mountain View County chambers to promote a drug awareness book and video. The book was made available by the Community Safety Net and Sundre businesses that chipped in to buy the book and make it available locally, he said.
"It also has a very good description of all the drugs in here — it shows pictures of all the different drugs."
He also spoke of an even newer drug, W-18, which is more powerful than fentanyl.
"It could be coming from China," he said. "Could be coming from anywhere in the world in our day and age."
For more information, visit www.health.alberta.ca/health-info and click on the "Diseases & Conditions" tab on the left-hand side of the page followed by "Addiction & Mental Health" and finally scroll down to "Fentanyl and Take-home Naloxone".
