Firefighters in Ottawa are responding to more opioid calls, and administering more doses of naloxone.
In a joint statement Thursday, Ottawa Public Health, Ottawa police and the city's overdose prevention and response taskforce issued an alert after the first sample of a drug called "N-pyrrolidino etonitazene," also known as "Pyro," was detected this week.Public health officials and first responders fear the appearance of a dangerous new drug on Ottawa's streets could lead to even more overdoses.
According to OPH, the drug belongs to a class of substances referred to as nitazene opioids, and is considered to be roughly 10 times more toxic than fentanyl and 1,000 to 1,500 times more toxic than morphine. Morgan Dalgleish, supervisor of OPH's harm reduction program, said nitazene opioids are not new, but this is the first time they've appeared in Ottawa's unregulated drug supply. He called the discovery "alarming."
"There has been a steady increase in toxicity in this drug supply, which has made things unpredictable and definitely unsafe."Dalgleish said other unregulated opioids including oxycodone , hydrocodone and Percocet have been found to contain nitazenes in Ontario.
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