A pilot project to test street drugs for fentanyl at the Vancouver safe injection centre Insite has found that about 80 per cent were laced with the potentially deadly opioid.
Testing of more than 1,000 drug samples over a nine-month period found more than 80 per cent of the heroin and crystal meth brought in by clients and about 40 per cent of the cocaine contained illicit fentanyl.
Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, medical health officer at Vancouver Coastal Health, says the drug checks resulted in clients reducing their dose and decreasing their risk of overdose.
Lysyshyn was to present the findings today at the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference in Montreal.
He says more testing of street drugs could save lives and help alleviate the public health emergency in Canada around opioid consumption and overdose.
Fentanyl is 100 times more toxic than morphine and a dose the size of a grain or two of sand can result in a fatal overdose. In British Columbia, more than 900 people died of apparent illicit drug overdoses in 2016, with about 60 per cent of the deaths linked to fentanyl.
"This study proves that the alarm bells that have been sounding over this public health emergency are fully warranted," said Rick Lines, executive director of Harm Reduction International.
"Street drugs are costing lives and this research confirms what we've long known — that supervised injection sites and drug checking can prevent unnecessary deaths."
