Toronto Public Health has issued a drug alert after a spike in suspected fatal overdoses and a reported increase in the potency of the illicit fentanyl supply. The alert issued Wednesday said paramedics had responded to at least 15 suspected fatal overdose calls over the past four weeks. It said they received at least five calls within four-day spans on three separate occasions.............read more ...

Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller developed nearly 60 years ago, is at the center of the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. More people have died of synthetic-opioid overdoses than the number of U.S. military personnel killed during the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans.... ...

The highly contentious Purdue Pharma settlement announced Sept. 1, 2021, comes at a pivotal time for the U.S. overdose crisis: 2020 was the worst year on record, with over 93,000 Americans losing their lives to fatal drug overdose. The drug overdose epidemic, now more than two decades long, has claimed the lives of more than 840,000 people since 1999. Current estimates suggest that some 2.3 million people in the U.S. use heroin and 1.7 million people use pharmaceutical opioids without a prescription.....(click on text for more and original article) ...

A new deadly cocktail has been showing up in Vancouver's drug supply in recent weeks: fentanyl cut with benzodiazepines or benzos as they're more commonly called.  Vancouver Coastal Health first warned about benzos — drugs like Valium and Xanax which have a sedative-like effect — being found in street drugs earlier this year..... ...

The number of Ontarians taking carfentanil, and dying from it, has spiked since the year began, according to he province's chief medical officer of health. Dr. David Williams sent a warning to the province's public health units in late June about a "sharp increase" in the presence of the powerful fentanyl analogue.  ...