Watch above: Ten people were taken to hospital over the weekend after taking illegal drugs laced with life-threatening chemicals. Don Meikle from Egadz says drugs cut with other chemicals has been an ongoing concern in Saskatoon for a number of years.
SASKATOON – The head of a Saskatoon agency that works with troubled youth says news of tainted drugs over the weekend was not a big surprise.
“It’s been happening for a number of years,” said Don Meikle, acting executive director of Egadz,”It’s been an ongoing issue.”
Meilke told Global News it’s also a difficult problem for police to track down the source, because the people involved are often not very co-operative.
“It’s kind of a different life of its own, people that take the tainted drugs aren’t necessarily going to tell the police, they’re not going to be cooperative with police,” said Meikle. “It makes it that much more challenging to find out where they’re coming from.”
Overnight on Friday police and paramedics were called to ten cases where people had taken cocaine or ecstasy that had been “cut” with some other chemical. One of those was a teen who was involved in a crash, and police said his symptoms were consistent with a drug overdose.
MORE: Potentially deadly drugs send 10 to Saskatoon hospitals
“We’re not sure what the chemical is exactly,” said Alyson Edwards, public affairs director with Saskatoon Police Service. “What we do know is that it is life threatening,” she told reporters on Saturday.
Since then police have not had any more reports of people getting sick from tainted drugs. But according to Meikle, the problem of illegal drugs, and the risks that go with it, are not going away.
“Anybody nowadays …” he said. “You’re getting some of your more middle class kids, and more middle class young people trying and getting into drugs … nobody’s really safe from this anymore.”
MORE: Addictions cost Saskatchewan about one-billion dollars yearly
He said scares like the one last weekend will sometimes motivate people to clean up their lives and get off drugs, but it isn’t easy.
“We’ll have young people that have consumed tainted drugs and have kind of like a near death experience, and they’ll come to us seeking help,” he said. “We try to offer those referrals and addiction support … you have successes but often the addiction is so strong … anybody who’s ever been involved in addictions understands how hard that is to quit,” said Meikle.
He said Egadz has a street outreach team working seven days a week, and helping people with addictions remains one of their biggest challenges.
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