About 60 fentanyl patches reported missing from Sioux Lookout, Ont., home says OPP
Police spokesperson says owner noticed they were missing July 26
Ontario Provincial Police in Sioux Lookout, Ont., say they're investigating after about 60 fentanyl patches were reported missing from a home in the northwestern Ontario community.
The owner of the 50 milligram patches last saw them on July 21, Cst. Ben Bye, a spokesperson for the provincial police detachment in Sioux Lookout, told CBC News Thursday. When the owner went to access them on July 26, they were missing, he added.
There were no signs of forced entry to the home during that period, Bye said. The missing patches were reported to police on Wednesday.
Investigators don't know where they could be at this point, Bye said.
"We're still doing some investigating and we're working with the owner of the medications and we're trying to figure that out," he said.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to treat chronic and acute pain, but increasing numbers of deaths are being blamed on the drug, prompting Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott and many of her provincial and territorial counterparts to declare "a serious and growing opioid crisis," in 2016.
Data from Ontario's chief coroner's office showed 39 people died from fentanyl in northwestern Ontario between 2010 and 2015.
"We've notified the hospital and we've notified the paramedics and other emergency services in case they happen to come across someone who's overdosed from it," Bye said.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Sioux Lookout OPP or Crime Stoppers.