Police intervene in double overdose

Unconscious men each had a syringe still stuck in his leg

Montreal police provided emergency cardiac resuscitation to a pair of apparent overdose victims near the Lucien L’Allier métro late Wednesday night.

The intervention began around 11:30 p.m., when a security guard called police to say two men were unconscious in the passageway from the subway station leading to the Bell Centre.

Arriving at the scene, police found the two men, still unconscious and each with a syringe in their leg. The officers immediately administered CPR to both men, reviving only one of them, a 32-year-old who told police they had bought heroin.

The second man, age 40, was taken to hospital where he remained in critical condition on Thursday.

Police locked down the area where the pair was found and sent whatever traces of the drug used by the victims for analysis to determine whether it had been laced.

Wednesday night’s incident occurred hours after provincial public health minister Lucie Charlebois announced that Quebecers would be able to obtain naloxone, which can be used to counter a

There have been some days where there have been peaks and we’re still in the process of examining the numbers.

drug overdose, free of charge in Quebec pharmacies.

That announcement followed reports that at least 12 persons had died in the month of August after overdosing on drugs laced with fentanyl, an opioid described as being 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Steve Kouloumentas, a spokesperson for Urgences Santé, said naloxone was used by paramedics to revive the two victims discovered on Wednesday night.

Despite the amount of media attention paid to the arrival of fentanyl in Montreal, Kouloumentas said Urgences Santé was examining its records to determine whether there was in fact a local increase in teams being compelled to use naloxone.

“For the moment, we can’t really say there’s been an increase,” he said.

“There have been some days where there have been peaks and we’re still in the process of examining the numbers. But at the moment, we can’t say there’s a crisis where we have to use (naloxone) more often.”