Police in Winnipeg say they have arrested the parents of a baby boy after the child suffered a possible overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl.
The north Winnipeg home where a nine-month-old baby was potentially exposed to fentanyl powder last week contained enough of the powerful drug to press pills for half the residents of Manitoba's capital city.
About 10.5 ounces of suspected fentanyl was seized in the home, enough to produce 300,000 pills with an estimated street value of several million dollars. The size of the seizure was revealed Tuesday after Winnipeg police announced the arrest of the baby boy's parents the previous day.
The boy's 33-year-old father and 32-year-old mother face a number of charges including criminal negligence and drug trafficking. Neither has a record of criminal involvement or drug activity, according to police.
"We aren't sure if they are new to this or inexperienced. Whatever the case might be, our focus is to get these types of drugs off our streets," said Constable Jason Michalyshen from the Winnipeg Police Service.
Officers from the Winnipeg police and paramedics responded to a 911 call on Oct. 18 and found the infant in critical condition. Officers soon noted the presence of what they believed was fentanyl and the baby was treated with an antidote, according to Constable Michalyshen.
A week after the 911 call, the baby's condition has been upgraded to stable and he remains in hospital.
Despite the large amount of powder and filler found in the home, Constable Michalyshen said there was little evidence that the couple was running a clandestine lab. He could not divulge why.
The Winnipeg police are still investigating how the baby came into contact with the drug, but they believe it may have been unintended.
"It's our belief is that there might have been inadvertent contact. A nine-month-old isn't walking around, but there could be residue on toys or a bottle, there could be many forms of contact between an adult and a child," Constable Michalyshen said.
Two milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of a few grains of sand, is considered a lethal dose for most adults. A smaller dose could be lethal for an infant. Police officers in Vancouver and Montreal have come into accidental contact with the drug and overdosed while responding to situations involving fentanyl. The officers who responded in Winnipeg were from a team specially trained for hazardous environments and clandestine labs.
Winnipeg police are still waiting for confirmation from a Health Canada lab that the drug they seized is in fact fentanyl – the results are expected within a week.
Prescription-grade fentanyl is roughly 100 times stronger than morphine. The powerful opioid was developed for patients suffering from chronic pain, however the abuse of illicit fentanyl has created a Canada-wide public health crisis and has been linked to hundreds of deaths.
Overdoses in B.C. and Alberta killed 418 people in 2015, up tenfold over three years. In Manitoba, 29 deaths were tied to fentanyl in 2015. A recent Globe and Mail investigation found that Ottawa and the provinces for years failed to take adequate steps to stop doctors from indiscriminately prescribing highly addictive opioids to treat chronic pain.
While the drug has been moving east from Canada's Pacific Coast toward Manitoba, the province is still unsure of the magnitude of the problem it is facing, according to Dr. Joss Reimer, one of Manitoba's medical officers of health.
"It would be safe to say we've seen a small increase over time in emergency room visits. In 2015, there were more fentanyl deaths than in any other year that we have on record. The number of deaths has gone up, but I can't say by how much," Dr. Reimer said.
The most recent complete data set on fentanyl deaths, released by the province's chief medical examiner, dates back to 2014 – predating the fentanyl crisis. Manitoba's fentanyl task force has been working to gather more up-to-date statistics.
B.C.'s provincial health officer declared a public health emergency in April in response to the rise in drug overdoses and deaths. The declaration gave him sweeping powers to collect data.
Justin Giovannetti