fentanyl

Ontario police and community groups are raising the alarm that a fentanyl crisis could be looming as synthetic versions of the drug appear across the province.

An advisory released by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council and other groups says 2016 has been a record year for overdose alerts and seizures of “bootleg” fentanyls by law enforcement officers.

The advisory says so-called bootleg fentanyls refer to drugs that are not prescribed by doctors, but produced synthetically and sold on the black market, usually mixed in with other illicit substances.

Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police spokesman Joe Couto says provincial law enforcement officials have seen an increase in the synthetic drugs in recent seizures, and his group believes mitigating the problem will prevent both crimes and overdose deaths.

British Columbia’s chief medical officer declared a state of emergency earlier this year following an increase in drug overdose deaths, many of which were linked to the dangerous opioid.

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