{"id":58838,"date":"2015-08-12T19:44:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T11:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=58838"},"modified":"2025-01-09T13:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T18:49:18","slug":"rcmp-deals-with-china-united-nations-as-fentanyl-deaths-surge-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/12\/rcmp-deals-with-china-united-nations-as-fentanyl-deaths-surge-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"RCMP deals with China, United Nations as fentanyl deaths surge in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Shutterstock<\/a>
(Shutterstock image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER \u2013 The RCMP is working with the United Nations and China to dampen the influx of the dangerous opioid fentanyl onto Canada\u2019s streets, but one high-level investigator expects the overdose problem to increase.<\/p>\n

That information comes as health officials across Canada urge jurisdictions to collaborate to combat the drug linked to at least 655 deaths. A bulletin released by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse says fentanyl was determined to be a cause or contributing cause of the deaths between 2009 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Fentanyl is a white powder that\u2019s easily disguised, tough to expose and in high demand by those with addictions, said Cpl. Luc Chicoine, the RCMP\u2019s national drug program co-ordinator.<\/p>\n

Chicoine said it\u2019s being smuggled into the country in many ways, from inside shaving kits on passenger planes, to couriers, to gangs importing shipments in commercial containers.<\/p>\n

Police have been unable to confirm the drug\u2019s primary origin.<\/p>\n

All the while the death toll climbs and could get worse, Chicoine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m going back into my speech of awareness, and understanding the long-term problem that we\u2019re slowly stepping into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixteen people overdosed in Vancouver on Sunday alone \u2013 including six in one hour \u2013 from heroin that police suspect was laced with fentanyl. The drug has been linked to the deaths of 12 people, mostly in Metro Vancouver, since July 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need so little fentanyl, (that tracing) the chemical signature would be extremely difficult,\u201d Chicoine said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t even know if the technology is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 100 grams can be mixed with fillers to make one kilogram of street drug, while only a few salt-sized granules can be toxic, he warned.<\/p>\n

Fentanyl is between 50 and 100 times more potent than morphine. The drug represents an entirely \u201cdifferent scale\u201d than bad narcotic batches in the past, such as tainted ecstasy, add health experts in B.C.<\/p>\n

Deputy provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is calling for a \u201cnational co-ordinated approach\u201d to better predict how the overdose situation will evolve, while noting the problem has accelerated in recent years, leaving an \u201cimmense\u201d impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not all using the same data sources, we\u2019re not all looking for the same thing, not all of us are monitoring things in the same way,\u201d she said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe issued a statement Tuesday saying that nearly three-quarters of people in B.C. who died from using illegal drugs last year had no fentanyl in their system.<\/p>\n

The RCMP is not conducting frontline investigations, but is leaving that work to local authorities. The force is working to identify sources.<\/p>\n

China-based pharmaceutical-grade producers of the synthetic drug could be the fountainhead for organized crime groups, said Chicoine, who has raised the issue with his counterparts in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in Vancouver at the moment, in the last few days, this is being compiled in our big picture of the Canadian situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I sit down at the table with my counterparts at the U.N. and I\u2019m sitting next to China … we discuss those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spent two weeks meeting officials there last April discussing the problem, Chinese regulations and ways authorities in both countries can work together.<\/p>\n

Broader discussions have been ongoing for at least three years, he said.<\/p>\n

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Because the Chinese government\u2019s attitude has changed and the country is acknowledging its own social problem, he said he\u2019s noticed a difference in co-operation.<\/p>\n

Global investigations have been initiated as part of a group involving 35 countries, he said.<\/p>\n

Fentanyl\u2019s reach is being tracked by the United Nations, according to the organization\u2019s World Drug Report 2014, which found heroin is being replaced by the drug on the black market in some countries.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Police don\u2019t believe Canadian companies with legitimate import licences are involved. Instead, packages of raw powder may be smuggled inside goods shipped from China, Japan, Australia or Europe that eventually reach Canadian ports.<\/p>\n

Customs agents need enough data before they\u2019ll make secondary and tertiary searches, he said.<\/p>\n

In Canada, there has been only one small-scale bust of a laboratory making fentanyl from scratch \u2013 in Surrey, B.C. in 2011, said Chicoine.<\/p>\n

He said police have uncovered about 20 production facilities pressing imported powder into tablets. Illegal manufacturers were arrested in Vancouver, B.C.\u2019s Lower Mainland, the B.C. Interior, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2013 The RCMP is working with the United Nations and China to dampen the influx of the dangerous opioid …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":23212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-58838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-original","mauthors-tamsyn-burgmann","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281790,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58838\/revisions\/281790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}