Police seize suspected fentanyl in Kitchener as local opioid-related deaths continue to rise
Posted May 24, 2017 06:10:43 PM.
Last Updated May 24, 2017 08:36:05 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 28-year-old man faces several charges after police seized $1,000 worth of meth and suspected fentanyl in Kitchener.
Regional Police were called to Lancaster Street around 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning after reports of a disturbance.
As a result, officers searched the 28-year-old, and say they found nearly $1,000 worth of drugs– including suspected fentanyl.
This comes after a new opioid-tracking website was launched by the province, and the data showed that opioid-related deaths are on the rise here in the Region.
So far this year, there have been 28 such deaths — and that’s a huge increase over the 24 deaths reported in all of 2015.
Ontario’s Health Minister Eric Hoskins says the new website will help health-care workers and policy makers better understand the scale of the opioid problem.
Hoskins says the stats show taking action is “crucially important.”