$1.25 fentanyl test kits for sale at DTES dollar store

Sarah Blyth of the Overdose Prevention Society says she was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Dollar Tree in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown East Side has started selling fentanyl testing kits for $1.25.

"One of our volunteers went there to pick up a few supplies and lo and behold there were fentanyl testing kits there," she said. "We tried some, and they seem to work."

Blyth, who started the OPS (Overdose Prevention Sites) safe consumption site, says cheap and easy fentanyl tests are especially important for occasional users or those in smaller communities who want to know what's in their drugs.

But DTES resident Sheldon Pelletier isn't sure the kits will make one bit of difference in his community.

"I think somebody's a marketing genius," he said. "People are going to find there's almost always fentanyl in their drugs. That's almost all there is down here. So, it's a little redundant."

Pelletier believes the test strips would be more useful if they tested for potency instead of just the presence of fentanyl. 

According to the B.C. Coroners Service, fentanyl was detected in 83 percent of the more than 1,400 overdose deaths in the province in 2017. So far this year, over 300 people have died from fentanyl related drug overdoses.

Blyth says testing for the presence of fentanyl is a start, but that users should also be aware of how tainted the street drug supply is generally.

"Drugs have all kinds of poisons and toxins in them. It could be carfentanil. It could be pig de-wormer, rat poison, cement  — many different things are found in drugs these days and they're all pretty toxic."

With files from Jon Hernadez