February 05, 2024

CBC wrote, “The chief said police know there's heroin and fentanyl in the city that's been "laced with GHB and something else." The service has sent samples off to Health Canada for testing.” In a video posted with the CBC article, the Belleville chief of police states: “We also know that there is some heroin out there and some fentanyl that has been laced with GHB and something else, we don’t kno. [...] CBC reported that at the press conference the health unit said it, “was continuing to investigate, but pointed to "early anecdotal data" indicating the jump could be related to brown fentanyl.” The Belleville Intelligencer also published an article, “Overdose spike fuelled by GHB- laced opioids: Chief Callaghan” which said, “Callaghan attributed the drug crisis to hard drugs such as heroin and fen. [...] That being said, a patrol officer did seize some drugs at an overdose that were not tested, I will be directing that officer to have the drugs seized sent for testing.” From their responses, it seems the samples did not test positive for GHB, but it is unclear exactly which samples tested positive for what, and which samples were related to the spike in overdoses. [...] WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED It is still not clear what exactly was in the drug samples submitted in relation to the spike in overdoses in November 2023, but it is clear GHB was not found in any samples submitted by the Belleville Police to DAS. [...] The initial statements raised a lot of concerns and questions for those working in public health, harm reduction, and directly with people who use drugs; they were trying to understand what happened to help with accurate messaging to keep people safer, and to develop responses and policies rooted in evidence.