Opioid crisis hits home

LETHBRIDGE NOT IMMUNE TO CRISIS BEING FELT ACROSS CANADA

Just two grains of salt. They won’t make much difference on your steak and fries. But if those two grains were fentanyl, they could kill you. And that’s just one of the hard facts about fentanyl, a street drug that killed more than 340 Albertans last year.

As well as dealing death to many users, speakers at a Lethbridge forum pointed out, fentanyl brings amazing profits to those who sell it — in Lethbridge and across the province. And it’s created an epidemic that’s overwhelmed Alberta’s health care and addictions treatment facilities, they told concerned citizens attending a recent public meeting at McKillop United Church.

What’s worse, the speakers explained, treatment programs that help men and women overcome their addictions to other substances aren’t always successful with fentanyl. In Lethbridge, they added, the waiting list for treatment is now eight months long. Some addicts — teenagers, middle-aged workers, seniors — won’t survive that long.

Const. Ryan Darroch, a drugs intelligence officer with the Lethbridge Police Service, said making and selling fentanyl pills is so lucrative that dealers can’t be bothered with cocaine anymore.

Shipments of “pure” fentanyl are mailed here by manufacturers in China, he explained. Depending on size, the packages could cost from $11,000 to $20,000 US.

But “with a kilogram of pure fentanyl, I would guess that a pill maker could make upwards of 100,000 pills or more.”

In Lethbridge, where Darroch said they typically sell for $30 per pill, that could mean a $3-million payday. Apart from their time using the pill press, the dealers’ only other input would be the filler material that’s mixed with the full-strength drug.

“That could be anything under the sun, including other drugs like cocaine, procaine, heroin — to household things like baking soda and over-the-counter pain killers.”

While RCMP and Lethbridge police have been successful with a number of busts, there’s apparently no shortage of fentanyl — and no lack of people ready to try them.

High school students in both the Catholic and public systems have been caught using it at parties, Darroch said. Once they’re hooked, some have supported their habit by stealing jewelry from their parents and grandparents.

Darroch said others, who have access to a vehicle, have become part of the drug dealing network. They simply drive to Calgary, where they can buy fentanyl pills for $7 to $10, and bring them back to Lethbridge for a quick profit.

“Organized crime plays a role as well,” he added.

Southern Alberta doctors are also part of the problem, explained home visitation worker Johanna Pritchard. Canadians are the world’s biggest users of prescribed opioides, she said, and southern Albertans have the highest rate in the province.

“About 90 per cent of those prescriptions are not needed,” she said, but many physicians are unduly influenced by the prescription drug makers’ persuasive salespeople.

While prescriptions for habitforming drugs are readily available, Pritchard said, resources for treatment are not. There’s an eightmonth wait to get admitted to the city’s only treatment program, she said, and the facility at Standoff is operating at capacity and refering new cases to Calgary.

In Calgary, she added, there are a number of treatment programs — for those who are able to pay.

There’s little support for families devastated by fentanyl, Pritchard reported. And although 12-step groups like Narcotics Anonymous are operating in Lethbridge, she said they offer no magic bullets for those trying to quit.

Along with treatment and detox programs, “they’re not as successful with fentanyl as they are with other drugs.”

Sophia Butler, a registered nurse working with the Arches educational and support agency in Lethbridge, explained how deadly the drug can be.

For some people, she said, just two grains (2 mg) of fentanyl can kill. “You stop breathing and you die.” Users have no idea how potent each pill may be, because they’re not produced in a measured and controlled way like prescribed medications.

That’s why Arches and other nonprofit agencies are offering free Naloxone kits — and the training to use them. The kits will counteract a fentanyl overdose in two to five minutes, she said, and bring no side effects.

Arches also offers information and counselling, she explained. “It’s like a walk-in clinic.” Unlike some services, she said, Arches does not insist on abstinence. Instead, it reminds clients to use the safest possible ways to use their drugs.

Butler stressed the need to provide funds for more treatment programs instead of heavier law enforcement. While it costs $5,000 to include someone in a treatment program, she said, it costs taxpayers $50,000 per year to keep them in jail.

Senior citizens are becoming addicted in Lethbridge as well, Pritchard pointed out. And babies born to addicted mothers, another participant said, are placed in Chinook Regional Hospital’s intensive care unit for up to a month while they’re given small amounts of morphine as they’re weaned off fentanyl.

Health-care systems in other nations are dealing with the fentanyl crisis more effectively, some forum participants pointed out. In France, one reported, every physician is trained to provide timely treatment for patients who are battling an addiction; deaths by overdose have dropped dramatically.

In Portugal, another said, health officials respond with immediate intervention and diversion — rather than criminal charges and incarceration.

In Lethbridge, speakers said, citizens should contact their elected officials to press for a more proactive response to the issue.

“This is a big problem, and it’s just growing,” Pritchard said.

Asked what else could be done, Darroch urged residents to keep an eye on homes that seem occupied only occasionally. Or where there’s a lot of coming and going.

“If something doesn’t look right,” neighbours should call CrimeStoppers.

Asked about the courts’ response to Alberta’s drug crisis, Darroch said he’s stopped tracking the sentences being handed down to drug dealers and their associates. Participants in the forum suggested they’re far too low.

“It’s totally demoralizing,” he admitted.

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Illicit drugs have always been a problem in port cities, but experts say the emergence of highly potent synthetic opioids that are fuelling British Columbia’s overdose crisis are slipping through borders in new ways, presenting challenges for law enforcement.

International regulations, online ordering and the potency of the drug are among the factors making it difficult to prevent the drug from slipping through Canada’s borders. More than 1,000 people have died from illicit drug overdoses in B.C. since January 2016, many as a result of the powerful opioids fentanyl and carfentanil which law enforcement says largely comes from China.

Canada Border Services Agency says seizures of fentanyl at Vancouver International Mail Centre have more than doubled to 54 last year from 23 in 2015.

But RCMP national drug program co-ordinator Sgt. Luc Chicoine said while lives are saved with every seizure, there’s no knowing how much of a dent every confiscation of drugs makes.

“For example, if we seize 100 kilos of a certain drug that’s coming into the country, was it only 100 kilos coming in or was it a million kilos?” he said. “We don’t have the capability of identifying what is the full scope.”

The high potency of fentanyl has allowed traffickers to transport smaller quantities with other imports, on individuals or through the mail, making it harder for agencies to detect.

Chicoine said people trafficking cocaine would need to bring in large quantities. Threequarters of a kilogram of pure cocaine once diluted would only produce one to two kilos for street distribution.

“While fentanyl, by bringing in 100 grams of it, you can cut it 10 to 15 times and you can have one to one and a half kilos of the substance,” he said.

He said the combination of high potency and today’s technology means users or dealers can now order illicit substances from China online and have it delivered straight to their door, making it harder for police to intercept.

Canada Border Services Agency said in a statement that detecting illicit substances is a priority, and all packages coming into Canada are opened and inspected if necessary before going through the mail system.

The agency said it’s waiting on legislative changes now before Parliament that would allow officials to open and inspect mail weighing less than 30 grams, a practice currently prohibited due to privacy concerns.

Chicoine said Vancouver’s proximity to China has made it the epicentre of Canada’s overdose crisis because it’s often the first landing point for opioids entering the country.

The RCMP have long had a relationship with Chinese officials, which was renewed last fall, to investigate crime between the countries. But fentanyl use has not been a problem in China, giving little incentive for officials to crack down on its manufacturing there, Chicoine said.

China announced earlier this month that it would outlaw the substance carfentanil.