Interior Health-wide alert for medetomidine, carfentanil in drug samples
Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Less than a month after a province-wide alert was issued by the BC Centre for Disease Control, Interior Health has put out its own regional warning for dangerous drugs containing medetomidine.
Medetomidine is a sedative approved for use in Canada for veterinary medicine and is 200 times stronger than xylazine.
“Medetomidine can cause harmful effects and make an overdose worse by lowering the heart rate, causing prolonged sedation (not waking up for a long time) and changing blood pressure,” the BC CDC said.
The drug samples tested by Interior Health were also found to contain carfentanil, a more potent analogue to fentanyl, and benzodiazepines.
The combination of drugs can cause severe overdoses, and the overdose symptoms caused by medetomidine and benzodiazepines are not affected by the application of naloxone.
Naloxone can still counteract the effects of other opioids that are in mixed drugs, but even after application, the overdose symptoms can persist.
The drugs tested come in a variety of colours and appearances.
Interior Health advises anyone who has drugs that look like those reported to have them checked before using.
Find drug checking services near you at drugchecking.ca, and find local substance use services by dialing 310-MHSU (6478).
Interior Health also offers a Virtual Addiction Medicine (VAM) clinic with a full range of opioid agonist treatment (OAT), including buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone), methadone, and slow-release oral morphine (SROM / Kadian).
The VAM clinic is virtual, meaning appointments will take place over the phone, no matter where an individual is located in the Interior Health region.
If you need help managing prescribed opioid agonist therapy (OAT), supervised consumption, overdose prevention, supervised withdrawal from alcohol, or counselling, people are asked to contact their nearest Interior Health Mental Health and Substance Use centre at 310-MHSU.
Interior Health also advises the following tips for safer drug use:
*Be aware of risks if mixing with other drugs, including alcohol
* Use with others around or at an Overdose Prevention Site
* Start with a small amount and wait before taking more
* Space out your doses
* Carry naloxone and know how to use it
* Call 211 or visit bc211.ca to find services near you
* Get the LifeGuard App – lifeguarddh.com
The province-wide alert from the BCCDC was posted online and sent via text using the Toxic Drug and Health Alerts System, which is managed by the BC Centre for Disease Control. Text notifications are sent to subscribers who want timely information about illicit substances and increases in toxic drug poisonings in their region, the health authority says. To subscribe, text JOIN to 253787 (ALERTS).
date:2026-02-11 22:14:00