RCMP Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown brings you behind the scenes with a serious of columns taking you behind police work and how it’s done in our community. If you have a question you think needs to be answered in Behind the Bison, send it to admin@borderpulse.ca and we will be sure to share it with him.
On June 15 the federal government released that the number of opioid related deaths across Canada
significantly declined in 2025. Opioid related means that the substances are linked to the opioid family
of drugs which include prescription and street drugs.
Although these numbers are specific to opioid drugs, overdose deaths also occur from other classes of
drugs. The government release specifies that increased access to naloxone, a medication that reverses
the effects of an opioid overdose, is a factor attributed to this decline. The release also stated that 78%
of the deaths were in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
The primary street substance in this family of drugs is fentanyl although prescribed opioid medications
can also be obtained at the street level. In my career I’ve seen two substances come into commonality
that changed the street drug scene in indescribable ways, methamphetamine and fentanyl.
How does this relate to Lloydminster? First, police do not determine the cause and manner of deaths,
this is the responsibility of medical examiners. Police act on behalf of medical examiners on death
investigations and will conduct tasks ordered by them.
Police investigate sudden deaths completing a number of tasks which includes a full scene examination.
RCMP officers can indicate the suspected cause of death, but we do not definitively determine this. We
will identify a possible cause of death based on evidence including if foul play is suspected and this
comes from past experience and evidence at each individual scene.
We have experienced overdose deaths in Lloydminster but nowhere near the overdoses that resulted in
immediate treatment and recovery. In the past twelve months, Lloydminster has seen 9 deaths
attributed to drug toxicity (overdose) and another 6 suspected deaths due to drug toxicity. The 6 are
only suspected as autopsy reports have not been received yet and there was no other evidence at the
scenes explaining the deaths. Past drug use of the deceased and/or the presence of drugs and drug
paraphernalia are factored into suspected overdose deaths.
Some deaths will have drugs as a contributing factor, but the person may have actually died of other
health related issues. By our experience as police officers and knowledge of the individual, we may
suspect the death is due to a drug overdose, but regardless, each death investigation is conducted as if it
is suspicious, until it is deemed non-suspicious. They can get complicated.
Recently a local individual was arrested and there was evidence in the residence that the person was
remixing suspected fentanyl. Due to the nature of illicit drugs, the risk to the users that consume them is
extreme. Pharmaceutically produced controlled substances can result in unintentional overdoses and
these medications are made under extremely tight controls to specific standards. Street drugs are made
in conditions far from sanitary without any quality controls and this is why the risk in using them is so
extreme.
As people continue to struggle with addictions, law enforcement will continue to target drug dealers.
Unfortunately though, as long as there are users of street drugs, there will be people willing to deal
drugs.
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