SaskatoonThe Saskatchewan Ministry of Health has issued a drug alert after Prairie Harm Reduction discovered a new drug cocktail circulating the streets in Saskatoon. Prairie Harm Reduction is warning people, saying overdoses of he mix cannot be reversed with naloxone.Xylazine, benzodiazepines in mix cannot be reversed with naloxoneCBC News · Posted: Sep 08, 2025 6:35 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoNaloxone cannot reverse the overdose of xylazine or benzodiazepines, two drugs found in a drug mix in Saskatoon recently. (Alexander Quon/CBC)Prairie Harm Reduction is asking the provincial government for help after a spike in Saskatoon overdoses that could be linked to a new drug mix circulating the city’s streets.”What we’re seeing are more and more mixed substances,” Kayla DeMong, the executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction told CBC. “The amount of deaths that we’ve been dealing with is astronomical.”The Ministry of Health issued a drug alert Saturday after PHR detected fentanyl, xylazine and benzodiazepines in a test sample of drugs sold as fentanyl.The alert says the substance appears as brown and green flakes, and that people using it may experience severe sleepiness, resulting in shallow breathing or death.Saskatoon’s fire department responded to 84 suspected overdoses from Aug. 17 to 26. Many of these cases resulted in hospitalization or required multiple uses of naloxone, a drug that temporarily reverses the effects of opioids.Prairie Harm Reduction staff Kim Randall and Kayla DeMong, left and centre, and Saskatchewan NDP mental health and addictions critic Betty Nippi-Albright at a Monday press conference. (Halyna Mihalik / CBC)Naloxone can reverse the effects of fentanyl, but won’t reverse the effects of xylazine or benzodiazepines that are found in this strain.”When you have multiple substances in place, each of those come with its own symptoms with the their own consequences and their own need for treatment,” DeMong said.Calling on province for helpSaskatchewan NDP mental health and addictions critic Betty Nippi-Albright said Monday that the provincial government needs to release an emergency response plan to combat Saskatoon’s overdose crisis.”They haven’t responded with immediate action,” Nippi-Albright said. “They have demonstrated to the citizens in the province [that] when it comes to substance-use harms, they do not care when we are losing individuals.”Prairie Harm also detected carfentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than fentanyl, in an Aug. 20 test. This could also be linked to an increase in overdose cases.In the alert, the Ministry of Health said that in one case the dangerous drug variant looked like blue and green crystals. DeMong says overdoses continue to become more common in the city.”We went from a handful of overdoses to our staff having to attend six at a time,” DeMong said. “We can’t say this isn’t a crisis when we are seeing this everyday.”Prairie Harm Reduction says Saskatchewan needs more support to help combat Saskatoon’s overdose crisis. (Kendall Latimer/CBC)Prairie Harm said that since January, 20 people connected to its services have died from overdoses. According to the coroners service, there have been 224 confirmed and suspected overdose deaths in Saskatchewan so far this year.In March, Prairie Harm had to temporarily close its doors due to the volume of overdoses exhausting staff members.Demong said there’s a risk that could happen again, and if it does there will be no one else to provide support for people experiencing an overdose.”We need support on the ground where people who can attend to those overdoses [can] provide referrals, create safe spaces and make sure that people have somewhere to go every day,” DeMong said. “We’ve had many incidents of people overdosing when they were all alone, and that’s a really scary thing.”CBC has reached out to the provincial government for comment, but did not hear back.The drug alert for the new drug mix will remain in place until Sep. 12.
Prairie Harm Reduction warns of deadly drug cocktail circulating Saskatoon
