Interior Health has issued a couple of Drug Alerts for Williams Lake.
A substance sold as DOWN that looks like white powder, contains Nitazene a synthetic opiod, Benzzodiazepine, Caffeine and sugar as buffs.
Interior Health says there is a very high risk of overdose, it will not be detected by fentanyl testing strips, and could easily be mistaken for other drugs like powdered cocaine or ketamine.
The other alert is also for a substance sold as DOWN associated with multiple overdoses.
It looks like green/yellow crystals or chunks containing fentanyl.
Interior Health Medical Officer Andy Dellipizzi said on Tuesday (December 3) their team in Williams Lake noticed there were overdoses that needed immediate medical attention.
“There were overdoses that needed resuscitation and we were able to have some of the drugs that people were using on hand to test. That’s really valuable because the testing showed that one of the samples contained Nitazine which is a synthetic opiod.”
Dellipizzi added Interior Health knows that in recent months the toxicity of drugs continues to increase, there’s different synthetic opiods, different mixtures of synthetic opiods that are having different effects on people.
He noted that the Drug Alerts are an extra caution to people who are using drugs, and their families and their supporters, that right now there is something circulating in Williams Lake that is producing severe outcomes.
Interior Health said further to Naloxone kits, community stakeholders also have kits such as BGC Williams Lake, CMHA, local shelter (Hamilton) and Salvation Army along with All Nations Healing House and Three Corners Health.
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