Drug use of any kind at any time is not OK.
That’s a message from the New Westminster Police Department, which dealt with three suspected drug overdoses in the last week alone. One incident on July 30 proved to be fatal.
The exact cause of the separate occurrences hasn’t been determined from a medical standpoint, but investigators noted drug paraphernalia at each of the scenes and received witness reports of drug use in all three cases, according to acting Staff Sgt. Chad Johnston.
“Drug use is something we see on a daily basis, and it is not something we would ever consider to be a safe practice,” he said. “We’re asking those individuals who make the choice to consume any type of drug to please consider the potential deadly result prior to choosing this path.”
The warning also comes amid recent news stories of street drugs laced with fentanyl, a powerful pain killer. On July 20, a North Vancouver couple was found dead in their home and fentanyl was to blame.
“We want to make sure we put it out there that we’re having an overdose issue, but we can’t say 100 per cent that (fentanyl’s) the cause right now,” Johnston said of the local cases.
Asked when the toxicology reports would come back, he said it probably wouldn’t be for another four to eight weeks.
As for the location of the overdoses, Johnston couldn’t give out that information.
