Spike in Moncton overdose calls raises concerns drug supply may have tranquillizers

Moncton, N.B.’s fire department responded to 52 overdose calls over the weekend when it usually only receives four or five a day.

And it’s suspected some sort of tranquillizer in the drug supply is to blame, according to Ensemble Moncton, a harm reduction organization that runs the city’s drug overdose prevention site.

Moncton fire Chief Conrad Landry says it was one of the worst few days he’s seen in his eight years on the job, in terms of responding to overdoses.

Since Monday, Landry says the number of calls has come down, so he hopes it was just a “bad batch.”

“Yesterday, around noon, we were at about 10. I didn’t look at the number after that. So it seemed that it’s slowing down a little bit, so hopefully it was just a bad batch and then we can get back into some normal numbers, which is still too high,” he said.

“But we’re monitoring this situation and we’re dealing with our stakeholders and our partners to see what we can do to be part of the solution.”

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Josue Goguen, a front-line supervisor at Ensemble Moncton, which is the city’s only drug overdose prevention site, says they’ve responded to 25 overdoses since Friday.

“We suspect that the current supply going around has some form of tranquillizer in it. We suspect that it’s medetomidine, which is a strong tranquillizer not made for human consumption,” Goguen said.

“I think it’s been challenging all around for our employees as well as frontline workers all across the city and paramedics and firefighters as well for sure. We are fortunate we have a really good team that’s been stepping up and taking care of each other, but it’s definitely been a challenging past few days for sure since Friday.”

While New Brunswick’s Department of Health hasn’t released any warnings about a possible tainted drug supply, Nova Scotia Health issued a warning about fentanyl containing high levels of toxicity causing suspected overdoses in Cumberland County.

A spokesperson from New Brunswick’s provincial government said they are “actively engaging with our partners” to better understand the situation and “identify any immediate concerns related to harmful substances in the area.”

“Our priority is ensuring the safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities impacted by substance use. We continue to support communities through funding take home naloxone kits, drug checking services, and encouraging safe consumption with peers and at Ensemble’s Overdose Prevention Site,” spokesperson Clarissa Andersen wrote.

Meanwhile, Landry says there were concerns over the weekend about how stretched thin the fire department was with the medical calls.

While the city has mutual aid agreements it can use if the department is overwhelmed, the concern is still there.

“But sometimes we were there 20, 30 minutes before an ambulance could arrive. So that was kind of our resources had to stay with the patient so that if we would have had a fire, that could have delayed some response,” Landry said.

As of July, the fire department will have a truck dedicated exclusively to responding to medical calls, which Landry hopes will help with resources.