Interior Health has issued a Drug Poisoning Overdose Alert for the City of Trail and surrounding area.
There have been a number of overdoses with severe outcomes in the area.
IH says West Kootenay drug checking services have recently detected high concentrations of fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, methylfentanyl, xylazine (tranquilizer) and benzodiazepines in down.
“The drugs that are circulating right now are a crazy combination of a variety of drugs that individually could cause overdoses and deaths. ” said Karin Goodison, medical health officer at Interior Health.
“We know the drugs around are all very toxic, but when we see clusters of really bad outcomes, we do want to let people know so they can take actions to protect themselves.”
As a result, the following steps are strongly encouraged to prevent overdoses:
- Get your drugs checked – find locations at drugchecking.ca
- Be aware of increased risk if mixing with other drugs, including alcohol
- Use one at a time so someone can respond to overdose if needed
- Use with others around or at an Overdose Prevention Site (OPS)
- Start with a small amount and space out your doses
- Carry naloxone and know how use it. Get at Kiro Wellness
- Get the LifeGuard App – lifeguarddh.com
- Call 211 or visit bc211.ca to find services near you
“If people want to find out about drug checking services in their area 236-972-7080 we’ll get them in touch with the ANKORS mobile drug checking services.” said Goodison.
“We also want to remind people if if you are with somebody else, which is what we highly recommend, like you use with a buddy, make sure that you’re separating your use so that two people aren’t going down at the same time.”
“We want you to watch your buddy, make sure they’re okay before you use your drug. And then, of course, mixing drugs with other things. Unfortunately, we’re seeing some premixes coming around that are really scary, but don’t add into that by using other things such as alcohol.”
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