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KAMLOOPS - A weekend surge in reported illicit drug overdoses in Kamloops this past weekend has pushed the total number to 18 this week, but it's not yet clear whether the powerful opiod carfentanil has made an appearance.

Interior Health Authority chief medical health officer Dr. Trevor Corneil says the city has seen the number of overdoses per a week grow over the last four to six weeks and it’s unclear if the trend is slowing.

“It’s quite concerning,” he says. “We really need all hands on deck.”

Typically there have been anywhere from two to nine overdoses in a week, Corneil says.

The 18 overdoses last week are just those reported to Royal Inland Hospital. He expects more happened in the community, but 911 wasn’t called because the person overdosing may have had a take home naloxone kit and was able to recover.

Corneil says it's likely there were one or two overdose deaths in the city recently, but they are waiting for the B.C. Coroners Service to confirm cause of death.

“Deaths are the tip of the iceberg, the overdoses are the next layer,” he says.

In particular there was a spike in overdoses over a couple hours over the weekend, but Corneil says that’s not unusual and can be a sign of a few users reacting to one specific batch of drugs.

“We proactively called the emergency room to see what was happening and we did hear of during one, three-hour period there were three or four overdoses,” he says.

While the health authority is aware and monitoring the surge, no one has been able to determine it’s cause.

“We’re not sure what it’s about; why it’s happening now,” he says. “There’s discussion whether there’s a new substance on the market; whether we’re dealing with carfentanil or another substance. We don’t know.”

Carfentanil, a more powerful drug than fentanyl, was recently discovered in Vancouver at the home of a man who had died. Coroners are investigating the cause of his death.

Corneil says carfentanil may be in the B.C. Interior, but there’s no hard evidence yet, adding it may also be a case of the black market being more brazen in it’s use of fentanyl.

The health authority is also seeing a growing number of overdoses per week in Penticton, and there are signs they may be trending upward in Kelowna. Corneil says they will not issue a general alert to the public until the trend is seen across more of the Interior Health region.

Find past stories on fentanyl crisis here.

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