A 17-year-old boy allegedly caught with counterfeit OxyContin is facing a possession charge.
He was charged with possessing a controlled substance after Saskatoon police pulled over a car on the 2500 block of 22nd Street late Tuesday night.
One of three people in the vehicle was in possession of seven fentanyl pills, police said in a media release.
Fentanyl has been involved in the deaths of dozens of casual drug users in Canada over the last few years. The synthetic opioid is often prescribed to cancer patients in severe pain, but drug dealers working in illegal labs have begun synthesizing the drug and adding it to other powders and pills such as fake OxyContin, to boost their potency.
Fentanyl is quick-acting and 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, so an overdose can lead to an almost immediate death.
Saskatoon police say officers are actively investigating the drug’s distribution in the city.
Any drug not prescribed by a doctor or dispensed by a pharmacist poses a risk of serious injury or death, police say.
--- with files from Angela Mulholland, CTV News
