Despite recent drug bust, Montreal is avoiding a fentanyl crisis, say community groups

Despite several bigfentanylbusts by police forces in Quebec over the last year, fentanyl use doesn't appear to be reaching a crisis situation in Montreal, according tosocial services groups, but they're preparing just in case.

In late June, the SPVMarrested 14 people in Montreal and Laval and seized 7,900 fentanylpills, 250 steroid pills and 800 Viagra pills.

Last December, the Sret du Qubec arrested three people and found a one-kilogram mixture containing fentanyl and Xanax, as well as GHB, and weapons including an air pistol and a conducted energy weapon in the Eastern Townships municipality of Potton.

• Fentanyl found for the first time in illegal Quebec drug lab, says SQ
• A week after opening, Montreal's safe injections sites report success

Community organizations say they knowfentanylis on Montreal's streets, but cocaine remains the drug of choice, and they're not seeing the same conditions as Vancouver, where 170 people have died this year alone due to opioid use.

• Fentanyl crisis 'a bloodbath,' says Vancouver mayor

Situation is fluid

Nicolas Quijano ispeer worker atMtad'me, an organization that offers support and services to drug users by drug users in Montreal.

Quijanowelcomed the news the police had seized more fentanyl, but said he wasn't sure those drugs were destined for the Montreal market he said he heard rumours the drugs were headed to Vancouver.

"We're pretty much in the same place we've been for the past three, four years where we know there's quite a bit offentanylin the heroin supply, but it's not in lethal amounts," he said.

"It seems that organized crime locally has been doing their homework, and cutting it responsibility, not havingdosages that vary widely from one dosage to another and there's not too many overdoses."

He said that people usingfentanylin Montreal often usepatches, so they know what they're getting, or they're using heroin cut with fentanyl.

Quijano says that there there's a smaller supply of opioid drugs in the city, compared to cocaine or marijuana, so it makes the situation more fluid.

"So things can change from one week to another, so we're not fully prepared to tackle something like Vancouver," he said. "My outlook is fairly good, we're ready for things to happen, we hope it doesn't happen."

• Naloxone now part of training for festival, prom organizers

He praised Montreal'spublic health department for their work in offering support to his organization and intraining paramedics to usenaloxone, a drug that can help reverse the effects of an overdose in opioid drug users.

Need to test drugs at injection sites

"We're not in a position to wait and see, we're already acting," said LouisLetellierde St-Just, the president of CACTUS Montreal, in an interview on CBC Montreal's DaybreakFriday. CACTUS opened a safe injection site in June.

"We're preparing because the opioidcrisis probably makes it easier for safe injection sites to open here in Montreal. We already have three, we will have one more in September. This is not the solution to everything, but at least we're going to get prepared," he said.

Letellier de St-Just also said that opioidusers in the cityare still a small group.

"Cocaine is still one of the main drugs which is used by drug users, injecting drug users, which is different from Western Canada, where heroin is moreused over there, so it's cut with fentanyl,he said.

Letellierde St-Just says CACTUS wants to offer drug testing at its safe injection sitein the future, to geta better sense of what drugs are on the streets,and so users will know what they're using.

"We're fairly sure that there is fentanyl on the streets but to which extent we can't say that. Wecan't have any idea at this point. But we have I think that we must consider ourselvesto be in a crisisso in that way we do everything that we can," he said.

• Montreal's supervised injection sites open, a first in Eastern Canada

Public health vigilant

"We don't have any full explanation for the situation to explain why we are kind of protected until now from the crisis,"saidCarole Morissette, the chief medical officer for Sant Montral, the city's public health agency.

"Since 2015...there hasn't been an increase in deaths and overdoses related to fentanyl, but as I said we have to be very vigilant," she said.

She said public health has a plan in place to prevent overdoses if the fentanylsituation worses, which includesmaking naloxone more widely available to anyone at risk of an overdose.

Morisette said that public health has been tracking injecting drug users in the city, but many of the drugs people are injected are prescription pills, not counterfeit pills with fentanyl.