Two deaths that occurred in Ollala last week are suspected to be related to the recent spike in drug overdoses in the South Okanagan, police said.
Cpl. Sean Hall in charge of the Serious Crime Unit based out of the South Okanagan said the coroner is currently investigating the deaths, however until the toxicology results come back nothing is for certain.
Police aren’t ruling out fentanyl as a possibility.
“We don’t know for sure yet because the toxicology and the autopsies haven’t been done, but it’s suspected,” Hall said.
“Anytime you have overdoses like this fentanyl is always suspected because we’ve had a spike in North America over the last few months,” Hall said. “It’s suspected, but until we confirm, we can’t say.”
Hall said that the suspected drugs may be opiates, though that hasn’t been confirmed either.
“Anytime you get an overdose like this you suspect it’s opiate related, but right now it’s like anything else until we get the (toxicology results) back there’s no way we can confirm,” Hall said.
Interior Health is investigating the matter with co-operation from the B.C. Coroners Service and the RCMP.
“Any information about someone selling dope, especially heroin or anything like that, call CrimeStoppers,” Hall said. “Any amount of heroin could be fatal, any amount of ecstasy or MDMA could be fatal just because somebody thinks they are doing a pure version of whatever they’re getting doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous to begin with.”
“There’s no safe way to do this stuff,” Hall said.
