TESTING STRIPS CAN IDENTIFY PRESENCE OF FENTANYL

Saskatchewan is providing test strips that can check drugs for toxic substances at overdose prevention sites in Regina and Saskatoon. The strips identify the presence of fentanyl and benzodiazepine in street drugs. Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more toxic than other opioids, cannot be detected by sight, smell or taste. The test strips only detect the presence of the two drugs — not their potency. But Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health says the two substances have been closely linked to the increasing number of people dying by overdose in the province. The Ministry says 66 per cent of confirmed overdose deaths in Saskatchewan so far this year involved fentanyl. “We keep having record years for overdoses,” Jason Mercredi, executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon, said Tuesday.