Fentanyl in Newfoundland: Timeline of a powerful killer drug

They knew it was coming.

For more than a year, outreach workerswaited for the day that fentanyl an opioidthat is about 100 times more potent than morphine would overwhelm the drug-taking community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

That day or rather week came in late April, during whichEastern Health revealed ata news conference that the deadly drug was suspected in 15 overdoses and one death on the northeast Avalon.

Since then, theoverdose number has risen to 18, including two deaths. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says the toxicology reports have not come back yeton the two deaths.

The syntheticopioid can be prescribedas pain medication, but its abuse as a street drughas swept across Canada, killing more than 1,000 people.

The moveof fentanyltothe street in Newfoundland and Labrador isn't new, with the deadly drug discovered by police in parts of the province over the last four years.

Drug deaths: 2013-2015

According to statisticsfrom the chief medical examiner, fentanyl played a role in two deaths in 2013.

In 2014,fentanylwas cited as a cause for three deaths. By 2015, the number had climbed to five.

• Killer drugs: N.L. death count rose to 20 last year;fentanyla factor in 5 fatal overdoses

It's not clear if these deaths were accidental, or whetherthe overdoses werecaused by drugs purchased on the street.

According to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Newfoundland reported five accidental or undetermined fentanyl-implicated deaths, between from 1997 to 2013.

One death was an overdose due to fentanyl alone, while four other deaths involved other drugs. All cases involved fentanyl patches.

August 2016

The Newfoundland and Labrador government announces it will supply 1,200 kits containing naloxone a drug that reverses overdose effects province-wide.

The 1,200 take-homekits, available free of charge, contain naloxonealong with items needed to administer it, like latex gloves, single-use syringes and alcohol swabs.

September 2016

A sweeping raid of Vikings Motorcycle clubhouses and their allegedmembers turned up27 grams of powder sold as heroin. But police said it actually contained 3.6 per cent fentanyl.

• Vikings MC affiliated with Hells Angels, police say in wake of Project Bombard

Police heralded Project Bombard, which involved charges of murder and drug trafficking, as having stopped the Hells Angels from gaining a foothold in the province.

Items seized in Project Bombard

8 years ago

Duration 2:47

The RCMP displayed various items taken during the Project Bombard searches including trucks, motorcycles, weapons, clothing and drugs.

In that same month, the RCMP spoke publicly about how its members were preparing for fentanyl to hit the east coast.

"This is certainly a new thing for us to be aware of and deal with," Staff Sgt. StevenConohan, the head of the province's clandestine drug lab team, told CBC News at the time.

Conohansaid officers hadbeen seizingfentanyl"sporadically" in the province.

"It's not relegated to any specific area.We're seizing it throughout [the island]as well as in Labrador."

November 2016

Operation Titanium saw guns, drugs and other weapons worth about $750,000 seized from the Avalon Peninsula.

• Baseball bat with knives taped to it, drugs, cash seized in Operation Titanium bust

Four people were charged, including a man and woman in Pouch Cove, a man from St. John's and another from Montreal.

Operation Titanium

8 years ago

Duration 1:14

Four people have been charged as a result of Operation Titanium, a 10-month long investigation that saw about $750,000 worth of drugs seized.

The next month, police said lab testsdetermined252 tablets seized were fentanyl.

January 2017

Contraband pills manufactured to look like OxyContinwere discovered on the Burin Peninsula.

• Toxic, deadly drugfentanylspotted on Burin Peninsula

The RCMP warned the pills containedfentanyl, a drug that will give a similar high, but is much stronger.

April 2017

Eastern Health holds a news conference warning of 15 overdoses and one death on the northeast Avalon, over the course of two weeks.

Patients reported to doctors that they believed they were taking heroin prior to overdosing. There were some cases involving cocaine and Percocet, according to the RNC.

Hours after the health authority made a public plea for users to be extra cautious, a mother of three boys overdosed.

Niki Chapman, 39, died in a home on Empire Avenue. She was the second reported overdose from the same cluster of drugs.

May 2017

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit announces two men have been arrested in relation to a drug seizure on a quiet street in the east end of St. John's.

• Two arrested, cocaine seized inBeaufordPlace bust

Justin Hopkins, 33, and James Lucas, 40, were stopped by police at 11 p.m. on April 28and arrested for trafficking cocaine.

The following afternoon, neighbours were told to stay inside their homes as police searcheda bungalow on Beauford Place.

Laboratorytesting later revealed that fentanylhad been mixed in with the heroin.

• Heroin seized in St. John's traffic stop 'may containfentanyl,' police say

On May 4, police seized heroin during a traffic stop in the east end of St. John's.

Officers believed the small amount of drugs may have contained fentanyl. The seized drugs were sent for analysis.

Meanwhile, the province convenesa provincial advisory committee meeting on how best to handle theopioidcrisis.

What's next?

Tree Walsh, who has been warning of the drug for years, described this wave of overdoses as "the thin edge of the wedge."

In an interview in late April, Walsh said the province and outreach workers need to be prepared, adding she and volunteers with the Safe Access Works Program havebeen busy distributing clean needles and instructing people on how to use naloxone.

The province, meanwhile, is determining how to expand access to kits, where the kits should go, and how to educate the public on the dangers of the drug.