Fentanyl suspected in two deaths Sunday; 21-year-old fights for life

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This article was published 21/11/2016 (3025 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shortly after Canada’s health ministers were issuing an action plan to address the opioid crisis following a two-day summit in Ottawa, emergency personnel in Winnipeg were trying to save the lives of three men who are believed to have overdosed on fentanyl.

Two of the men died and the third remains in critical condition.

Sunday’s deaths bring to at least seven suspected opioid deaths in the city in just the last month alone. This does not include the suspected carfentanil poisoning of a nine-month old infant, who has recovered and been placed in care. Carfentanil is 100 times more powerful than fentanyl.

People living near an upscale Richmond West rental home watched in horror on Sunday as emergency personnel brought two men, at least one in obvious medical distress, out of a two-storey home at 67 Kinlock Lane.
At about 9:30 p.m., emergency crews responded to a medical distress call from the house. The two men — ages 22 and 21 — were rushed to hospital, where the 22-year-old was pronounced dead. The other remains in critical condition. Illegal drugs were found inside the home, located near the University of Manitoba, leading to speculation the dead and injured men were students.

Fentanyl is suspected but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

“I saw the guy getting out of the house (on the stretcher), they were pumping his heart and everything. It was very terrifying,” said Beatrice Canuel-Desilets, 17, who lives across the street with her parents and sister.

“We weren’t sure if they were dead or not… they probably had families. They made bad choices, they were probably nice people. It’s sad.”

Police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said five other people in the house were interviewed by police, and a translator was needed for some of them. Neighbours said the house had recently been sold and an unknown number of people had moved in and there were “a lot of nice cars” and people coming and going from the house.

Canuel-Desilets said her family didn’t know any of the occupants in the house across the street and had wondered at times what was going on, given the amount of activity.

“Normally you don’t see that here (in the neighbourhood). There’s kids, we have little kids living right there,” Canuel-Desilets said, pointing to another home nearby.

A man living nearby with his wife and four children said the scene Sunday night was frightening and chaotic; two ambulances, four police cars and two fire trucks responded.

“We saw a lot of young people so we thought they were renting to students,” said the man, who didn’t want his name published. “It’s quiet here, nothing like this (has ever happened before). We heard in the news it was fentanyl, that is so scary.”

“Why do people try this? It’s killed so many people. We need to stop this. It’s terrifying,” Canuel-Desilets said.

Sunday night’s events followed the discovery of a 30-year-old man’s body at the Mariaggi Theme Suites Hotel on McDermot Avenue in the Exchange District. Police said the man stayed periodically at the hotel, and had booked a room with another individual. When staff went to the suite, they found the man dead.

Police officers called to the hotel room found drugs and drug paraphernalia. A fentanyl overdose is also suspected.

“At this point, we really have no comment; this is an unfortunate situation,” said hotel owner Don Laluk. The hotel offers a selection of various theme rooms to clientele.

In both cases, testing will be done to confirm the type of drugs involved in the deaths, police said.

“Families are grieving in a way I can’t imagine,” Michalyshen said, calling the two discoveries in different areas of the city Sunday part of “an epidemic in our community.”

Michalyshen urged parents and guardians to talk to their children about what’s happening. Fentanyl is infiltrating other recreation drugs and being taken without the users’ aware of its presence.

“This could be that 17-year-old who never used drugs before who goes out with friends, is curious, and doesn’t wake up tomorrow. That’s what this could be about,” he said. “Talk to them. There are all kinds of conversations we should be having.”

Health Minister Jane Philpott extended her condolences to families of people who died over the weekend from suspected fentanyl overdoses in remarks during a day-long series of meetings in Winnipeg.

“It’s one of the most serious health threats our country is facing right now,” Philpott said.

She made reference to the two-day summit that concluded in Ottawa Saturday, bringing together health experts and health ministers from across Canada.

“This is requiring a broad, complex response and many of the people who need to be involved were at that conference,” Philpott said.

She stressed the role of public education as crucial to alerting the public to the fentanyl dangers.

“You asked me what we would say to the people of Manitoba about that. If you look to the federal action plan we proposed in June, the very first step of that is to broaden public education and make sure the message is out to families and communities,” the minister told the Free Press.

“There’s a lot that needs to be done in terms of public awareness.”

Last week, two women and a man died of suspected fentanyl overdoses in an Inkster Gardens house in northwest Winnipeg. Last month, two men were found dead in a car parked in the St. John’s neighbourhood in the north part of the city. Their deaths are also suspected to be from fentanyl overdoses.

Michalyshen said it can take seven to 10 days to determine whether powder found at a scene is fentanyl. It can take months to detect whether fentanyl had been ingested. However, police are confident enough with the similarities to other cases, that the deaths were likely caused by fentanyl overdoses.

He said in many cases, people aren’t aware they are taking fentanyl. Other drugs are being laced with the opioid.

The most common drugs being laced with fentanyl are Oxycontin and crystal meth, but it is also showing up in cocaine and other street drugs, he said. It is commonly found in white-powder form.

There have also been warnings about marijuana possibly being contaminated with fentanyl. Michalyshen said police have done extensive testing on seized marijuana but have not found any fentanyl so far.

“It doesn’t mean it’s not present,” he said.

Ottawa is taking steps that range from working with doctors and drug regulators to reduce the dependence on prescription opioids, Philpott said.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done addressing the flow of opioids into communities, particularly illicit fentanyl which is showing up in the largest numbers in British Columbia, increasingly in Alberta and now, of course, in Manitoba, ” Philpott said.

“There’s a lot more but it’s something where there’s a concerted effort now across the country to respond to this.”

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Monday the province is taking action and the focus is two-fold: building public awareness of the risks and increasing access to naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses; Jan. 1 is the target date to increase distribution province-wide, he said.

“But I want to be clear, naloxone is not a safety net for everyone,” he said, adding he fears some fentanyl users will be emboldened with the knowledge more of the antidote will be available.

The province is also exploring increasing accessibility to suboxone to treat opioid addiction. It is considered a less-powerful alternative to methadone that provides a reduced chance of overdose, addiction and abuse.

“It has a different success rate, so we are looking at expanding options,” Goertzen said.

Wait times for entering a drug-treatment program are too long, he said, promising the province will be announcing a plan to co-ordinate the mental health and the addictions systems together. “They are too separate and everything I have heard from successful programs in other jurisdiction is they are more (successful) combined together, because there is a clear correlation between mental health and addictions,” he said.

— with files from Kristin Annable and Alexandra Paul

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca