The BCCSU publishes Provincial and regional monthly reports that summarize drug checking results. Here is the May 2022 report from samples collected by Drug Checking Sites across the Interior Health region.

Key Findings

The percentage of opioids testing positive for benzodiazepines in the region remained high (64.9%, 113 of 174 samples), but trends may be hard to infer due the large geographic region. Etizolam, the predominant benzodiazepine in expected opioids, may be missed by drug checking technologies. This means that the true rate may be higher than reported here.

• The fentanyl analogue para-fluorofentanyl is appearing in down more frequently. Para-fluorofentanyl is believed to be less potent that fentanyl and is accurately detected with fentanyl test strips.
• Drug checking is available in many different communities in the Interior Health region. For updated times and locations, visit our Interior Health’s drug checking website.

Find the full report here.