Drug death prompts new fentanyl warning from Winnipeg police

WATCH: Drug death prompts new fentanyl warning from Winnipeg police

WINNIPEG – Police issued a new warning Monday about the presence of fentanyl on Winnipeg streets.

One person died and another was hospitalized on the weekend in overdose cases officers say could be linked to fentanyl.

READ MORE: Winnipeg police investigating drug overdoses possibly linked to fentanyl

Fentanyl is a narcotic much more powerful than morphine that is sometimes mixed with other street drugs such as heroin. In an alert published earlier this month, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse warned that fentanyl-related deaths had jumped in Canada’s four largest provinces over the last six years.

WATCH: Const. Rob Carver talks about the need to disclose potential overdoses, describes fentanyl overdose

“Between 2009 and 2014, there were at least 655 deaths in Canada where fentanyl was determined to be a cause or a contributing cause. This represents an average of one fentanyl implicated death every three days over this time period. This figure is likely an underestimate,” says the study.

In Manitoba, the number of deaths blamed on the drug has remained constant between 2009 and 2013, according to the CCSA, with 75 deaths where fentanyl was either detected or implicated as a cause.