Tainted Street Drugs Hit Northern Ontario

By: Nick Liard

Sudbury police and the local health unit are teaming up to warn people about potentially lethal street drugs.

The Sudbury and District Health Unit have received a number of reports of drugs being cut with small but lethal or very harmful amounts of substances such as opioids and recently levamisole.

Medical Officer, Dr. Ariella Zbar says opioids like fentanyl can be lethal and have no smell, taste and cannot be seen, and levamisole can be seriously harmful to the immune system.

Zbar says there hasn’t been a case where levamisole has been found in drugs in the Sudbury area, but was found in cocaine in North Bay.

Health officials advising people to get a naloxone kit and get training on its use, a kit is used to reverse opioid overdoses and can be sprayed in the nose.

Zbar advises people to call EMS if someone is suffering an overdose, the recently passed Good Samaritan Overdose Act, exempts people from possession charges if they call 9-1-1 for themselves or another person suffering.