Naloxone-resistant street drug linked to 9 deaths in Eastern Canada seized in Alberta Achi-News

A street drug linked to nine deaths in Eastern Canada is showing up in Alberta, prompting RCMP to issue a warning about its potentially fatal consequences.

Grande Prairie RCMP received a report this week from Health Canada regarding a drug seized on February 28. Police said a large amount was seized following a suspected fatal overdose.

The drug contained fluorofentanyl mixed with bromazolam, a benzodiazepine. It is not approved for medical use in any country.

The drug analyzed was oval in size, stamped with “20” and “SS,” although it can come in other forms.

Benzodiazepines are depressants that slow down the nervous system and are commonly prescribed for sedation to treat insomnia or to reduce anxiety, under names such as Valium, Xanax and Ativan.

Health Canada says mixing benzodiazepines (benzos) with other depressants such as alcohol or opioids – also known as benzo-dope – increases the risk of overdose.

Fentanyl is a strong opioid that can lead to an overdose causing breathing to slow or stop, unconsciousness and even death. Benzos also cause respiratory depression, sedation and can make a person lose consciousness. It is not an opioid, which means that naloxone or Narcan, the medications that reverse some overdoses, cannot be used.

Health officials say the combination of these drugs is extremely dangerous. Officials say fentanyl coated with bromazolam would see less of the effectiveness of naloxone or Narcan, necessitating the use of additional doses, which could still result in death.

This is not the first time bromazolam has been found in Alberta.

In May 2023, RCMP in Strathmore also encountered drugs laced with bromazolam. Police said about half a kilogram of laced fentanyl with a street value of about $109,600 was seized during a traffic stop in the southern Alberta community.

Alberta-based voluntary cooperative Each+Every is a national coalition of businesses that support harm reduction and regulation of the drug supply.

He noted that benzodiazepine-related opioid overdoses can keep people unconscious after the naloxone has done its job of restoring respiration.

“Death from a benzodiazepine overdose alone is extremely rare,” said Each+Every co-founder Euan Thomson, a Calgary business owner and scientist. Last year, he launched Drug Data Decoded – a website dedicated to examining drug policy.

“Naloxone and rescue breathing are still the first-line responses to any suspected overdose where breathing is slow, short or absent, or if the patient is unconscious, as it is almost certainly due to an opioid.”

Municipalities across Canada have issued warnings about benzo-dope in recent years.

Bromazolam was linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick between July and November 2022. The New Brunswick government issued a warning about it in December of that year, saying fentanyl was also found in some of these cases.

“The appearance of bromazolam in the street drug supply in New Brunswick is of great concern,” said Dr. Yves Léger, that province’s deputy chief medical officer of health.

“What’s particularly worrying is that people don’t know it’s in their street drugs.

“There are no warning signs of the presence of bromazolam, as it cannot be detected by sight, smell or taste. There are no telltale signs.”

Last month in Ontario, the Waterloo Region Integrated Drug Strategy issued a drug alert after three people died of suspected drug poisoning or overdoses.

The agency said new fentanyl analogs, bromazolam, xylazine, and medetomidine / dexmedetomidine were discovered while running detections on fentanyl samples at a supervised use site.

Peterborough Public Health also issued a warning last year about the deadly drug, saying green round pills being sold as Xanax containing bromazolam were circulating in the region.

A warning was also issued in central BC a year ago, saying that drugs sold as down, dope and fentanyl carrying a high concentration of bromazolam and fentanyl were appearing on the streets of Penticton.

Toronto Public Health reported in 2020 that benzodiazepines (and benzo-related drugs such as flualprazolam and etizolam) had begun to appear in that city’s opioid supply. The warning noted that benzo toxicity on top of an opioid overdose could render a person unconscious for a long time.

The city recommended continuing to administer naloxone to help reverse the opioid overdose and improve breathing, but said the person may not regain consciousness because of the sedation from benzos.

Public health officials are urging people to never use drugs alone and to use testers to check the strength of a drug.

In Alberta, RCMP said opioid-related deaths increased by 24 percent and benzodiazepine-related deaths increased by 32.5 percent between 2022 and 2023.

RCMP said between January and November 2023, the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System report shows 1,706 opioid-related deaths and 57 benzodiazepine-related deaths and, in 2022, for the same period, these numbers were 1,375 and 43, respectively that order.

For all of 2023, Alberta RCMP said Mounties responded to approximately 1,100 opioid-related calls for service with 368 (33.4 per cent) fatal.

There have been 67 naloxone installations by Alberta RCMP, increasing by 31.3 per cent since 2022.

Under Canada’s Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, anyone seeking medical help for themselves or someone else who has overdosed can be protected from being charged for drug possession or personal use.

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