Police issue warning after 3 found dead, 2 hospitalized from suspected drug overdoses in 3 days

London police have issued a warning to the public after three people were found dead and two people were hospitalized from suspected drug overdoses in the city in a span of just three days.

Police say they located a 39-year-old woman dead and a man in critical medical distress around 12:20 p.m. Monday at an unspecified address on Maitland Street. That same day, police attended a Wonderland Road south address and located a woman who had died of a suspected overdose.

Officers returned to the Maitland Street location around 10:50 a.m. Wednesday to follow up, and say they located a deceased man and another man in medical distress.

The deaths on Monday and Wednesday bring the total number of suspected overdose deaths in the city so far this year to five. Police said two suspected overdose deaths occurred on Jan. 7 in separate incidents.

Police said fentanyl and other opioids can be unknowingly mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and oxycodone.

In a statement, deputy chief of operations for London police, Steve Williams, said that while investigators were still waiting on toxicology results, they felt it was important to warn people immediately.

“We don’t know if it is related to illicit opioid use or another drug, but once again, we are urging people to be careful if they are going to use any drug because we know fentanyl and carfentanil are in London,” he said.

Signs of an overdose include difficulty walking, talking or staying awake, blue lips or nails, very small pupils, dizziness and confusion, choking gurgling or snoring sounds, and slow, weak, or no breathing.

The news comes hours before local and provincial police and local health officials are scheduled to hold a public education session on the dangers of opioids at Wolf Performance Hall, and days before officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) are set to announce the location of a temporary overdose prevention site, or TOPS, in the city.

The health unit said Wednesday that the location of the site would be announced at 11 a.m. Friday during a news conference at Innovation Works. Officials have previously said the site would be located in the downtown.

The temporary site is meant to act as a holdover in addressing the opioid crisis in the community while work continues on long-term supervised consumption facilities.

According to statistics from the Public Health Agency of Canada, at least 1,460 people died of opioid-related overdoses in Canada in the first half of 2017, a number that is expected to rise significantly once year-end data has been analysed. In 2016, 2,861 opioid-related deaths were recorded across the country.

In Ontario, 867 people died of opioid-related overdoses in 2016, according to the most current numbers from Public Health Ontario. Thirty of the deaths were reported by the MLHU. According to the agency, Ontario saw 3,240 cases of opioid-related emergency department visits in the first six months of 2017 — 139 of them were reported by the MLHU.