The only safe-injection site in North America says 90% of clients' heroin contained an opioid many times stronger than morphine

published on September 6, 2016 by Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian, in Business Insider

North America’s only supervised injection site for drugs like cocaine, speed and crystal meth has found that 90% of its clients’ heroin contained the powerful synthetic fentanyl.

Vancouver’s Insite, which offers health services including supervised injection, said that of the 173 drug checks it did for fentanyl in a month, 90% tested positive for the potent synthetic drug.

Fentanyl, which is about 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, has caught the attention of medical and law enforcement authorities across North America as it becomes connected to more and more deadly overdoses in the opioid epidemic.

“This is happening all over, other cities may not have the same degree of contamination we have here in Vancouver, but it’s coming,” said Mark Lysyshyn, medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates Insite.

This past week in the US, a spate of overdoses broke out in several cities, including Cincinnati, where officials suspect fentanyl is behind 78 overdoses in two days.

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The only safe-injection site in North America says 90% of clients' heroin contained an opioid many times stronger than morphine

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