Saskatchewan has seen an increase in the number of take home drug tests being requested. (File photo/saskatchewan.ca)

By Teena Monteleone

Drug testing

Requests for Naloxone kits and fentanyl test strips surge in Sask.

Mar 25, 2025 | 4:00 PM

Recent overdose warnings in Saskatoon and Prince Albert due to contaminated drugs appear to have more people on high alert.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said from March 1 to March 16, 1,360 free Take Home Naloxone Kits were handed out provincially. That’s compared to 470 over the same time period last year.

Naloxone is used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. Since the free program launched in November of 2015, the Ministry of Health said it is aware of at least 11,683 Take Home Naloxone kits used to reverse an overdose, though it said the actual figure is likely higher.

A drug alert was issued for Saskatoon after emergency services started responding to an average of 19 overdoses per day in mid-March. The contaminated drugs were found to have dangerous levels of fentanyl.

“The fentanyl is having unusual, delayed effects, can cause sleepiness first, then stop breathing. Multiple doses (4-5) of naloxone required to revive patients, oxygen and paramedic responses have also been needed,” the alert reads.

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Around the same time, the Saskatchewan Coroners Service reported two suspected drug toxicity deaths in Prince Albert within a 24-hour period. The unknown substances that caused the fatalities were reported to be fentanyl, oxycontin or morphine.

Access Place in Prince Albert handed out more Naloxone kits this month than usual. In January they gave out 19 individuals kits. So far in March, more than 100 have been requested. In September of last year, the clinic also started using a staff-assisted drug checking system called a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. It can rapidly identify what is in a drug and can alert people who use drugs if there are other components, such as fentanyl, and if so, how much it contains.

“This allows for people to take action to reduce the risk of overdose,” the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said in an email to paNOW. “People who use drugs often do not know if they are mixtures of several substances. For example, fentanyl may be present and cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, increasing the risk of harm.”

According to the Ministry of Health, to date, testing has been completed on over 790 samples using spectrometres in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina.

The SHA said there has also been a significant increase in fentanyl and benzodiazepine test strips (take home drug checking strips) distributed at Access Place. Between March 17 and March 21, 362 test strips were given out in Prince Albert compared to just 73 in all of February and 9 in January.

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teena.monteleone@pattisonmedia.com