Fredericton police issue bromazolam warning after fatal overdose

The Fredericton Police Force is warning the public about a potentially lethal drug after it was linked to a recent overdose death in the city.

The force says bromazolam is suspected to be circulating in the city's illicit drug supply and is being mixed with other street drugs such as fentanyl and crystal meth.

"Bromazolam is not approved for medical use in any country and can lead to serious adverse effects, including death, especially when taken with opioids such as fentanyl," the Fredericton force said in a news release.

Bromazolam is a type of benzodiazepine, which is commonly prescribed as a sedative or for anxiety management.

But unlike other benzodiazepines, bromazolam is not approved for medical use in Canada or anywhere else.

Fredericton police spokesperson Sonya Gilks said the overdose death happened in late July, and bromazolam was detected in the victim's system following an autopsy.

Gilks declined sharing the victim's gender, age or where the overdose happened.

"It's under active investigation, so I really couldn't give a lot of specifics," she said.

"But what I can say is that, you know, we suspect that bromazolam is present in the illicit drug supply, and... we're really urging anyone using drugs to be aware of the increased risk and to seek help if needed."

The warning comes just weeks after police issued a warning about an increase in calls about fentanyl overdose, with the number of calls received so far this year nearly equal to the total number received in 2023.

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioiod, has already been blamed for thousands of overdose deaths across Canada and North America in recent years.

Gilks said bromazolam is often consumed when mixed with other illicit drugs, such as fentanyl.

But while the drug naloxone can quickly reverse the effects of a fentanyl overdose, it doesn't have that effect against bromazolam, Gilks said.

Another danger with bromazolam, Gilks said, is that it cannot be detected by sight, smell or taste.

The Fredericton Police Force warning isn't the first time officials in New Brunswick have raised concerns about bromazolam use.

In December 2022, Dr. Yves Léger, the acting chief medical officer of health, warned the drug had been found in the blood samples of nine sudden death victims in the province over the previous five months.

Léger, at the time, said there were ways users could limit their risks, such as not taking multiple drugs at one time, never using drugs alone, only taking a small amount to start, and having naloxone on hand.

Overdose marks need for supervised sites, says doctor

Benzodiazepines act as a depressant on the body's central nervous system, slowing down functions such as reaction time, thinking and breathing, said Dr. Sara Davidson, an addictions doctor and medical director of the River Stone Recovery Centre in Fredericton.

She said bromazolam has emerged in recent years as a "designer drug," produced illegally, and often added to common drugs such as fentanyl, unbeknownst to the people consuming them.

"This kind of thing would be found much more readily if we had a safe consumption site, because that's where drugs are tested a lot more before they're used," she said.

Davidson said the problem arises when someone takes fentanyl without knowing it is cut with bromazolam.

If an overdose occurs, people around that person might try to revive them using naloxone, which would be ineffective.

Instead, the patient would likely need to be admitted to hospital and put on life support until the bromazolam wears off.

"Often people feel very frightened about going up to the hospital, and everyone knows how stressed the health-care system is," Davidson said.

"So together as a community, it's really time for us to pull together with compassion and … address the underlying mental health deficits and housing and poverty and a lot of the drivers of substance use disorder.

"But until we get there, we really need to put in place some more, more deeply embedded harm reduction approaches to get people out of harm."

Gilks, with the Fredericton Police Force, said it's important for people to remember that the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act provides legal protection to anyone seeking emergency treatment during an overdose.