Police warn about fentanyl-laced tablets that could appeal to kids

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This article was published 21/02/2025 (245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police say tablets shaped as hearts and flowers that contain the deadly opioid fentanyl may be circulating on the street.

“They’ve been done in a mould, clearly, and they’re intriguing. So the No. 1 caution is children, they could really easily be drawn to things that are that aesthetically pleasing,” Const. Dani MacKinnon said Friday.

“For individuals who are regular opioid users, and they do get their drugs from the street, they should just be really careful because these drugs haven’t been tested yet.”

The tablets could be mistaken for cookies or small soaps. Because they were recently seized, a sample hasn’t been sent to a Health Canada drug analysis lab, meaning it’s unknown whether other dangerous substances have been added.

MacKinnon said the fentanyl was found and seized “very recently,” but would not say more about the investigation, which is being handled by the guns and gangs unit.

There aren’t many reported cases of fentanyl being trafficked in this format. In 2022, the Sarnia Observer, in Sarnia, Ont., reported that fentanyl pressed into shapes of cartoon characters were seized during a raid in the city.

“We certainly do need to know more about it,” MacKinnon said. “That’ll be when the testing comes back, but that takes months sometimes.”

Management at Sunshine House and St. Boniface Street Links, which help people who use drugs, said they had yet to see the moulds.

Marion Willis, of Street Links, said she had heard about the cookie-cutter-style fentanyl tablets from some of the people taking shelter from the cold weather with them.

“There are people out there that are telling us that fentanyl now is being sold in different forms, and it’s been marketed quite differently … maybe that’s the way that those that make and sell the drugs are disguising it. I don’t know,” she said.

“Are they trying to appeal to a new user demographic? I really don’t know.”

The last drug alert sent out by Safer Sites was nearly a month ago, when a string of overdoses in January in Winnipeg resulted in a warning about a dangerous opioid that resulted in poisonings.

Manitoba recorded 434 suspected overdoses or drug poisonings from Jan. 1, 2024 to Sept. 31, 2024, as per the most recent preliminary data provided by the chief medical examiner. January had the highest number of deaths (67) so far and September had the lowest (34), meaning it is possible the year will break the record of 467 deaths in 2022. There were 445 deaths in 2023.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca