Vancouver Coastal Health has issued a public alert after drugs on the Downtown Eastside tested positive for benzodiazepines, a tranquilizer-type drug creeping into the street supply and causing grave concern for health officials in B.C.
The class of medication, commonly called benzos, includes drugs like valium, ativan and clonazepam. Overdoses caused by such drugs cannot be reversed by the naloxone, the antidote used widely to temporarily reverse opioid overdoses.
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Dr. Mark McLean, medical lead of the Rapid Access Addictions Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, told Black Press Media that the drug was first prominently found in Vancouver’s street drug supply in early April, and when mixed with illicit fentanyl creates a deadly cocktail that’s proved difficult to combat for frontline workers and emergency officials.
Click here to read the story on Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News
Similar story also found on The Northern View.
