No reports of carfentanil in Belleville, says public health unit

The NarCan naloxone kits are available at many public health offices and pharmacies in the area, and are used to reverse the affects of an overdose while inhaling the nasal spray through your nose. Photo by Sophie Dudley, QNet News

By Demii Niles

BELLEVILLE – There have been no reported cases of the deadly drug carfentanil in the Belleville region, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health says.

A report from The Intelligencer says that Street Health, a health centre in Kingston says that carfentanil has shown up in local street drugs and has appeared in urine samples.

Carfentanil is a form of fentanyl and is 100 times stronger and 500 times more potent than a unit of heroin. It is not meant for human consumption and is intended for the sedation of large animals like elephants.

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health nurse Jean Terhaar told QNet News that a small amount of the drug can rapidly make people overdose.

“It looks like a couple (of) grains of salt and it’s a very potent type of substance for fentanyl,” she said.

It is almost impossible to detect, Terhaar said.

“You can’t smell it (or) taste it. It’s undetectable that way, and that’s what makes it so dangerous. If the powder gets into your nose, eyes, and mouth – that’s what can cause an overdose if people come in contact with it.”

Naloxone kits are an opioid-overdose preventive. They are used as an emergency before going to the hospital. They reverse the effects of the opioid overdose and knock the opioids out of receptors in the brain and allows them to breathe again.

There are Naloxone kits available at Hastings Prince Edward Public Health. Pharmacies have injectable doses which can reverse the effects when injected into to a vein.  The Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Unit has the nasal spray, which is used to put in one nostril and inhale to breathe better as a medical substitute. They can give out kits to individuals or friends and family members for people who have been using opioids in the past or are currently still using.

There is also a kit available for students at Loyalist College located in the nurses office.

Terhaar said the kit does reverse effects of the overdose but can also put a person back into an overdose depending on what the person has taken or how much they have taken and it’s very important to call 911.

She said that she does not know where the carfentanil is coming from.

“All opioids are in drugs. Whether you know where they are coming from or the amount of what’s in the drugs, you just don’t know,” said Terhaar.

Terhaar said that parents should talk to their children about the risks of substance abuse.

“In regards to parents, talking to your kids about substance use and keeping up communication… for individuals themselves, reminding them to be weary about where they get their drugs from because nobody knows what’s in it and the potency of what that drug might be,” said Terhaar.