New data released Wednesday reveals a staggering proportion of drugs tested at Insite contain traces of a lethal drug that’s killed hundreds in B.C. this year alone.
Results from the first month of a new pilot program at the supervised injection site suggest 86 per cent of the drugs checked at the facility contained fentanyl.
The test period ran from July 7 to Aug. 3 and 173 checks were performed. Ninety per cent of the checks on heroin, or drug mixtures containing heroin, were positive for fentanyl.
Fewer checks were performed on cocaine, crack, speed and crystal meth and were less likely to be positive, according to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).
“These initial results confirm our suspicion that the local drug supply is overwhelmingly contaminated with fentanyl,” said Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, medical health officer with VCH, in a news release. “We’re hoping this information can help people who use drugs.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, primarily prescribed for cancer patients in severe pain. It is approximately 50 to 100 times more toxic than morphine. Increasingly, illegally manufactured fentanyl has been found as a contaminant in supplies of illicit drugs such as heroin.
According to the press release, the amount of overdoses at Insite has skyrocketed over the last decade: 573 were reported between January and July, compared to 132 during the same timeframe in 2006. Nurses are also eight times more likely to have to use naloxone, also known as Narcan, to reverse overdose in 2016 compared to 2006. There have been no fatal overdoses at Insite since the supervised injection site opened in 2003.
As part of the pilot program, nurses at Insite have been offering clients a test strip to check their drugs at their injection station: the drugs are then diluted with water and a positive or negative for fentanyl is revealed almost instantly.
The method checks for fentanyl alone. The test strips are a product originally developed to check urine for fentanyl, and not intended for drug-checking, making the Insite program a pilot project.
Staff will evaluate the results of the pilot project to determine if it’s helping clients and whether to continue the service.
The results are being posted regularly at Insite for clients to view.
“We’ve heard from clients that they want to know what’s in their drugs,” Lysyshyn said. “With the number of overdoses rising it’s critical to empower people to learn about their risk of being exposed to this toxic substance. We’re hoping this will encourage them to use our harm reduction services like take-home naloxone kits, consider undergoing addiction treatment and take precautions like decreasing their dose or not using alone.”
