Calgary addiction survivors warn of contaminated drugs as overdose calls increase

Calgarians who have survived traumatic overdose experiences are raising awareness of the increasing dangers of drug contaminants as poisoning deaths and EMS calls climb higher.

According to the Alberta substance use surveillance system, the province saw 733 EMS opioid related calls in the month of April, which is a nearly 40 per cent increase compared to the 528 EMS calls for the same month last year.

In 2022, 1,630 Albertans died of drug poisoning deaths of which 92 per cent involved opioids. The province also released data for January 2023 revealing that 111 Albertans died from drug-poisoning during the first month of the year. All but one fatality involved opioids.

FENTANYL

Based on data from 1,006 Alberta drug poisoning deaths last year, 80 per cent involved fentanyl. Methamphetamine was involved in 52 per cent, while carfentanil was found in 27 per cent.

“Let’s say you go to a certain dealer that’s supplying your drugs, but maybe they get something different and all of sudden it turns into a game of Russian roulette,” said Sandra Desmazes.

Desmazes is a peer navigator with Alberta addicts who educate and advocate responsibly (AAWEAR). The 46-year-old has struggled with addiction since she was a teenager, she’s overdosed before and lost her husband to an overdose four years ago, but she’s using her lived experience now to help others.

“I deal with poisonings on a regular basis and I know from when I was using fentanyl, to like the stuff that's on the streets right now, that stuff is now cut with the benzos including xylazine and all this other stuff,” she said.

Sandra Desmazes is a peer navigator with Alberta Addicts Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly (AAWEAR). The 46-year-old has struggled with addiction since she was a teenager, she’s overdosed before and lost her husband to an overdose four years ago, but she’s using her lived experience now to help others.

“When you’re going through an overdose you don’t even know you’re going through an overdose and with so many different drugs on the street you don’t even know what you’re getting.”

Other overdose survivors like Alyssa Abbott are also using their experiences to help those struggling. The 27-year-old is now four years sober and is studying addictions and community services at CDI College.

She notes that dealers on the street are now looking to take advantage of those with addictions by selling drugs laced with dangerous contaminants.

“At one point I was using what I thought was heroin and it was actually it turned into fentanyl and also carfentanil, which is very, very, very frightening. It's very harmful and very risky harming a lot of people,” said Abbott.

“So for anyone struggling, I would 100 per cent say to reach out to family members, doctors, anyone to get help. Everyone deserves to live a perfect life and a healthy life and this is not the end.”

EMERGING THREATS

Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer drug not approved for human use that can lead to people blacking out and developing agonizing flesh wounds.

The effects cannot be reversed by naloxone, an overdose-reversal medication, which is becoming increasingly concerning for the already-deadly opioid crisis.

In Alberta, the tranquilizer was detected 34 times in 2022, compared with 1,011 in Ontario and 260 times in British Columbia.

Amy Leung, manager of clinical services at CUPS Calgary says these types of drugs point to an even greater emphasis on regulating safe supplies of drugs.

“I think that we often view harm reduction and human recovery as a dichotomy and really, I think it goes hand in hand,” Leung said.

“These drugs really prolong the amount of time that someone is potentially unresponsive so we have someone who's out using on the streets, it really puts them at risk of, you know, being robbed, being harmed, and then just the longer someone isn’t conscious, the more dangerous it is.”

Other advocates like Euan Thompson with Each+Every Businesses for Harm Reduction, says the Alberta government needs to avoid forcing those struggling with addiction to get treatment.

“This could not be more dangerous under the current circumstances, with xylazine entering the market now as well,” he said.

“People get out of treatment and frequently resume use. If those people encounter a brand-new drug they haven't been exposed to before, the risk of overdose is way, way higher. So we need to take this very seriously. We need to start talking about regulating the drug supply now."

‘STATE OF EMERGENCY’

As of Wednesday this week, the Blood Reserve, just west of Lethbridge has called a state of emergency as xylazine has emerged in the area.

Reserve officials say there is a ‘very poisonous’ batch of drugs which has led to a spike of drug poisonings in the community.  

According to a statement from the Calgary Police Service, the drug xylazine was first detected in the city in 2015 with very few positive samples detected this year.

“As we see new drugs and drug combinations make it into the community, we remain vigilant on their spread and consumption and respond accordingly,” read the statement.

The Calgary Police Service continues to receive information from Drug Analysis Services (Health Canada) to monitor any emerging trends.

Stuart Brideaux, public education officer with Calgary Zone EMS, says that many of the calls his team attends are termed as ‘polypharmacy’ or ‘multi-agent’ injections involving different substances.

He adds that there are various challenges when dealing with overdose calls and it’s never necessarily evident or obvious sometimes what substances could have been taken.

“These patients require supportive care, we need to take over their breathing in the ambulance or at the hospital sometimes for continuous amounts of time,” Brideaux said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported low concentrations of xylazine in 43 deaths since January 2019, all of which also involved fentanyl.