By James Peters

New RCMP video shows another side of the fentanyl crisis

Sep 14, 2016 | 10:38 AM

KAMLOOPS — BC RCMP have released a video warning British Columbians about another side of the fentanyl crisis.

The video includes testimonials from two BC Interior constables detailing their personal interactions with the powerful drug.

Cst. Rob Dupuis of Central Interior Traffic Services based in Kamloops describes responding to a call of a man slumped over his steering wheel.

After he attended to the man, Dupuis returned to search the vehicle.

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“I noticed that there was a bit of a chemical smell, and also a masking agent. So it was very perfumy, but also the chemical smell,” said Dupuis. 

“I just started feeling a little light-headed and dizzy at that time, feeling a little nauseous. So for my safety and his, I asked him what drugs he was using, and that’s when he told me he had been using fentanyl.”

Dupuis says preliminary medical testing showed how serious his exposure had been.

“They did an EKG and my heart rate was elevated and blood pressure. They also did a urine test, and there were trace opiates (detected). And that was just from a 15 minute exposure in a vehicle, and it not being pure fentanyl.”

Dupuis says fentanyl has brought an added element of danger to an RCMP officer’s everyday duties.

“The traffic stop is one of the most dangerous things that we’ll ever do in our career because of the unknown. Now adding fentanyl to the mixture, you’re stopping a vehicle and you think it’s drugs, you look at it and it looks like it’s cocaine or heroin, you just don’t know any more.”

The video goes on to describe the experience of Cst. Dawn Adams of Kelowna RCMP.

Adams tells about a call to a restaurant, where during conversation with her, a man dropped a folded piece of paper on the floor.

“I put my boot on it, dragged it over to me, leaned over and picked it up. When I unfolded it, it basically exploded white powder in my face,” said Adams. 

“It was then that I felt the effects of whatever was in that paper immediately. I felt dizzy, I felt nauseous, I couldn’t stand up very well, I had to lean over. It was a feeling of helplessness, too. Very unnerving for a police officer.

Adams says a dose of naloxone had her feeling better almost instantly.

Even so, she says the experience has transformed her operational routines.

“I don’t handle drugs the same way. I’m very conscious. Put them in bags, seal them up. We don’t measure them at our desks, we do it in a controlled environment because you never know what’s in them anymore.”

“That unsafe drug is out there and it takes a second for you to be exposed, and another second for you to die. And we all want to go home at the end of the night.”