The latest victims of the province’s wide-reaching overdose crisis are two 16-year-old girls from New Westminster, a suburb of Metro Vancouver.
On Friday, the two high-school students ingested pills that they thought were MDMA—a party drug known as ecstasy or Molly. One is dead. The other is in critical condition.
“This is a situation that should be deeply concerning to the entire community,” Sgt. Jeff Scott told CTV News. “We're still actively investigating what the drugs might be. And we're investigating who may have sold the drugs.”
Initial toxicology reports show that the pills were not MDMA, but a mixture of unknown drugs. Sgt. Scott could not confirm whether carfentanil or fentanyl were present.
“We don’t know what the mixture of drugs was,” he said.
The two girls bought their drugs from the same dealer. Police are warning those pills are likely part of a larger lethal batch still in circulation.
Scott is advising drug users who don’t feel well to seek medical attention immediately. He’s also urging teens and parents to take caution.
In the midst of the B.C.’s ongoing fentanyl crisis, advocates are concerned this unidentified lethal mixture could exacerbate the epidemic.
“It'll likely end up in the Downtown Eastside,” Jordan Westfall, president of the Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs, told CTV News. “People are dying every day… And it's scary to think that, but it could get worse.”
