OPP Join Calls for Greater Fentanyl Awareness

Dufferin County, ON (OPP - Dufferin Detachment) Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is adding voices to the police and public health calls for extreme safety when it comes to handling or ingesting fentanyl.

The OPP is releasing audio public service announcements and will post or link content to its popular social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) in an effort to enhance education and awareness of the many threats posed by fentanyl and similar opioids.

Although legal when prescribed by a doctor for chronic pain management, fentanyl is roughly 100 times more potent than morphine and about 40 times more potent than heroin. A lethal dose of pure fentanyl is as little as two milligrams. That’s equivalent to 32 grains of table salt or seven poppy seeds. Drug dealers add illegally obtained fentanyl to other drugs they sell -- like cocaine and counterfeit oxycodone tablets -- as a cutting agent to increase their profits. That activity is also increasing the number of overdoses and deaths. Over the last five years, more than 500 people died in Ontario after knowingly or unknowingly ingesting fentanyl.

To find out more about the dangers of fentanyl and short term antidotes, we encourage everyone to visit www.facethefentanyl.ca , part of an awareness campaign supported by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP).