N.W.T.'s top doc warns fake Xanax laced with fentanyl may be in Yellowknife

Fake Xanax pills laced with fentanyl may be circulating in Yellowknife, according to the territory's chief public health officer. 

The RCMP says it has not seized any of the pills in the N.W.T. so far, but that they have been showing up throughout Western Canada, including Calgary.

"If you do come into contact with somebody trying to sell you Xanax, there's a quite clear possibility that it would be a fake pill that's made to look like Xanax but it contains fentanyl," he said, "and it could be deadly."

Xanax, the trade name for the compound alprazolam, is usually prescribed for anxiety, but is occasionally taken recreationally. 

With counterfeit pills, Corriveau says you never really know what you're getting — especially when fentanyl is involved. The drug, an opiate similar to Oxycontin but many times stronger, has been responsible for hundreds of deaths a year since it began appearing in Canada in the early 2010s. 

Fentanyl is often mixed in with other drugs, causing overdoses even in small amounts.

"Some pills might have very little, some might have a lot," explains Corriveau. "You don't know what you're taking one pill to the next."

The territorial government has made naloxone kits freely available in pharmacies in an effort to combat overdoses.

• Opioid antidote naloxone now available free at all N.W.T. pharmacies