File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Drug Exposure

‘It’s not plutonium’: Kamloops ER doc chides top cop and fire chief for fentanyl ‘misinformation’

Jul 24, 2023 | 11:42 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops emergency physician says he was dismayed to hear the city’s top cop and fire chief confirming misinformation about fentanyl at a City of Kamloops committee meeting last week.

Speaking to the city’s Community Policing Select Committee last Thursday (July 20), Kamloops Fire Rescue Chief Ken Uzeloc and RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley spoke anecdotally about their departments’ experiences since small amounts of illicit drugs were decriminalized for personal use on January 31, 2023.

“When decriminalization occurred, we put out a memo to our staff to now anticipate that there may be up to 2.5 grams of fentanyl or other illicit drugs in the vicinity or on the person and to take extreme caution and wear all [personal protective equipment] as prescribed for responding to these events,” said Uzeloc.

Pelley weighed in as well, noting much less than the allowed 2.5 grams can be fatal.

File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

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Dr. Ian Mitchell, an emergency physician at Royal Inland Hospital, says fentanyl is dangerous if its users are unaware of the concentrations they are ingesting. Otherwise, Mitchell says the dangers of exposure to the substance are being greatly exaggerated.

“It’s not magic and it’s not plutonium,” Mitchell said to CFJC Today.

He notes there have been many examples, shared on social media, of first responders taking precaution too far.

“Believing themselves to be undergoing a fentanyl overdose (after trace exposure), they’re injecting themselves with naloxone, the opiate antidote,” he said. “One thing I can tell you about naloxone is, if you can inject yourself, you don’t really need it because you’re not having an opiate overdose.”

“I don’t know where this comes from,” added Mitchell. “We’ve had a number of cycles of misinformation about fentanyl being in cannabis joints. There was a big scare around, nobody wanted to touch a shopping cart because there might be traces of fentanyl left on it and someone could overdose in the parking lot.”

“None of this has any evidence. It’s magical thinking and really relates to people’s fears of fentanyl and how it’s caused so much destruction in our community. But unfortunately, it’s not magic, it’s just very deadly when you don’t know how much is in it.”

The longtime physician says it is important that first responders, especially, are able to act quickly in overdose situations. Instead, he believes taking unnecessary precautions could use precious moments when a quick response is vital.

“If someone has had an overdose and there is a suspicion of fentanyl being in the area, then the first responders are going to be hesitant about approaching that person,” said Mitchell. “And that is someone who’s overdosing, who is experiencing decreased oxygen to the brain. The longer time before someone gets to them with the naloxone, the more likely chance there is of them having brain damage.”

At the committee meeting last Thursday, Uzeloc and Pelley were asked to provide their observations of the change in open drug use since decriminalization came into effect. Both reported marked increases.

As for Mitchell, he says decriminalization hasn’t seemed to make a difference in traffic through the RIH emergency room.

“I can’t say that I’ve noticed much of a difference. Things just keep getting worse and worse but I can’t say the time since decriminalization has, from my perspective, made any big impact on us,” he said. “I don’t know what the official figures are, so I can’t really speak for the hospital or the nursing department as a whole.”

Mitchell encouraged Uzeloc and Pelley to educate their departments on the true risks of trace fentanyl exposure, which he believes would allay fears and decrease “hysteria.”