Deadly carfentanil starting to surface more

By Gillian Slade on August 21, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

The number of deaths related to carfentanil is increasing in the south zone, and so are seizures by the Medicine Hat Police Service.

The zone had one carfentanil related death in 2016, nine in 2017 and already seven in the first quarter of 2018, according to an Alberta Health Opioids and Substances of Misuse report.

The first seizure of carfentanil in Medicine Hat was in February 2017, but several more have followed.

“We have confirmed seven seizures of carfentanil in Medicine Hat in 2017,” said Staff Sgt. Cory Both of the MHPS organized crime section, which is in charge of the city’s Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team. “The seizures were all in very small quantities, and in almost all cases, seized through street-level undercover drug buys.”

There has been just one confirmed carfentanil seizure in 2018, but it could be higher once testing is completed from other drug busts.

“This does not mean it’s the only seizure in 2018” Both said. “Many of the drugs seized and sent for analysis take a while to be returned from the lab. We often do not know what we are truly dealing with until months after.”

A unit of carfentanil is 100 times as potent as the same amount of fentanyl, 5,000 times the potency of heroin and 10,000 times that of morphine. It is often added to or sold as heroin because it is less expensive and easier to obtain.

The first seizure of carfentanil was among 86 pills seized from the accused, Aaron Bodnaruk. They were initially thought to be fentanyl but 16 of the 86 pills were later analyzed to be carfentanil, said Both.

“Also of interest in this case, 2.2 grams of an unknown white substance seized in the same file was analyzed as containing furanyl fentanyl, another potent opioid derivative, as well as caffeine,” said Both. “This was the first and only time we have seen the presence of this drug on the streets in Medicine Hat.”

Bodnaruk died before charges against him could be concluded in court.

In April this year, a Medicine Hat man selling heroin, which turned out to be carfentanil, was sentenced to five years and one month in a federal penitentiary.

What had been scheduled to be a preliminary hearing turned into a sentencing, as 33-year-old Levi Aebig entered guilty pleas to possessing proceeds of crime and three counts of trafficking carfentanil, meth, heroin.

It can be difficult to determine the origin of seized drugs.

“Most drugs that are sold in Medicine Hat come from major supply centres in Alberta. Mostly Calgary, sometimes Edmonton,” said Both.

He says Calgary and Edmonton’s wholesale markets are generally supplied by large-scale distributors from Vancouver, which receive shipments through ports of entry from foreign sources.

“Fentanyl and carfentanil generally originate from unregulated Asian markets. This is different than cocaine and meth, which usually come form large-scale organized crime manufacturers in North and South America.”

Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid first synthesized in 1974 and investigated as a potential analgesic and anesthetic. It never entered clinical trials because it was considered too potent for use in humans. It is only legitimately available for use by licensed and trained veterinarians for the sedation and immobilization of large animals for transport, examination or surgery. Its manufacture has been limited to 19 grams per year in the U.S.

Carfentanil was only made illegal in China in March 2017, according to a draft document by the office of the chief medical examiner in Alberta.

There were 28 carfentanil related deaths in Alberta in 2016, 169 in 2017 and 46 in the first quarter of 2018, according to the Alberta Health Opioids and Substances of Misuse report.

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