Dangerous veterinary drug being added to fentanyl

By Joe O’Grady, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temiskaming Speaker TEMISKAMING SHORES – Health agencies in the region are continuing to warn illicit drug users about a dangerous veterinary sedative being added to street fentanyl. Timiskaming First Nation Health and Wellness Centre is the latest agency to sound the alarm over medetomidine, a “new and dangerous” veterinary sedative which is “significantly increasing the risk of overdose and severe withdrawal.” Not only is the sedative not approved for human use, it causes deep sedation and slowed breathing, and is not reversed by naloxone and has no known antidote.