Vancouver police renew fentanyl warning after 6 overdoses in one hour

WATCH: Police across the country are looking into several overdoses that happened over the weekend, to see if there’s a connection with a so-called “designer drug”. It’s called Fentanyl and just one pill can be deadly. The drug is becoming more and more popular, not just with teens but adults living in the suburbs across Canada. Ross Lord reports.

Vancouver police are sounding the alarm again after six overdoses in the span of just one hour Sunday night.

Investigators say the spike in overdoses is connected to suspected tainted heroin.

Police were advised of six overdoses resulting from a toxic mix of heroin between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Local service providers say there were an additional ten overdoses throughout the day.

READ MORE: Opioids kill hundreds of Canadians a year. Why are doctors still prescribing so many?

The ingested drugs were pink in colour.

The toxic substance has yet to be determined, but Vancouver police say it may be fentanyl.

WATCH: This past weekend police say there was a dramatic spike in heroin overdoses – 16 in one day and all believed to be linked to fentanyl. Grace Ke reports. 

Drug users are reminded to exercise caution when taking street drugs, not to use the drugs alone and start with a small amount.

READ MORE: Families impacted by fentanyl deaths speak out

The latest overdoses come in light of two high-profiles cases, where a Burnaby teen and North Vancouver couple died as the result of fentanyl.

Vancouver police say they have ramped up efforts to target fentanyl dealers. Projects “Trooper” and “Tainted” led to 20 arrests and netted 55,000 pills with a street value of up to $41.5 million.

BC Coroners Service says there have been 54 fentanyl-detected deaths so far this year, meaning fentanyl was found in the post-mortem toxicology testing.

That compares with 90 deaths for all of 2014 and 49 for all of 2013.

With files from Jon Azpiri