Overdose calls spike in south Okanagan

RCMP in Penticton say drug overdose calls  in the city are significantly on the rise.

“We’ll see in a week or month what we see in a year,” said Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth. “It’s a huge problem.”

Wrigglesworth says police responded to more than a dozen overdose calls over the course of two weeks, one of them resulted in death.

“I’ve never dealt in  my career with this many overdoses.” said Wrigglesworth.

Wrigglesworth says last Saturday alone, police responded to three overdose calls.

The RCMP officer could not confirm if the overdoses involved fentanyl-laced drugs. “I haven’t seen any results of tests or autopsies to say it is, I’d be jumping to conclusions but I would suspect it’s fentanyl.”