The Ontario Provincial Police is warning the public after four people in the Simcoe-Muskoka area died from suspected opioid overdoses.

The OPP are advising of a "highly potent and potentially fatal strain" of illicit opioids that they say may be circulating in
Simcoe County and the District Municipality of Muskoka — a region that's been hit hard by the opioid crisis.

The OPP says officers with the Southern Georgian Bay detachment responded to a report on Tuesday of two women in their early 20s found dead of a suspected opioid overdose at a home in Tay Township.

Three days later, investigators say officers with the Bracebridge unit responded to call at a Gravenhurst motel, where they found a man in his mid-40s and a woman in her mid-30s who had both died of suspected opioid overdoses.

Police say the "prevalence of illicit opioids" distributed through drug trafficking networks "continues to increase."

They say symptoms of fentanyl and opioid overdose can include difficulty walking, talking or staying awake, as well as blue lips or nails, cold and clammy skin and very small pupils.

Data from the Simcoe-Muskoka health unit at the end of 2022 shows an average of 13 people in the region wind up in emergency rooms each week due to suspected overdoses. The data shows there are four drug-related deaths per week.