A spike in fentanyl-related deaths across Ontario is being called a “game-changer” for front-line officers and has prompted the province’s police leaders to address the misuse and dangers of drugs that contain opioids.

The two-day training symposium, which started Wednesday in Toronto, was organized by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) and aims to educate 450 front-line police and border patrol officers on what officials are calling ‘one of the most significant health and safety crisis in Ontario today' – the abuse and overdose of opioids.

Fentanyl is a highly potent opioid that’s said to be 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. The drug is commonly prescribed to people for pain relief and sedation but has crept into the illicit drug market, where components of the opioid are imported from foreign countries, produced and sold in a synthetic form.

Speaking to reporters from the symposium Wednesday, Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer said fentanyl deaths account for 28 per cent of Ontario’s opioid-related overdoses in 2015.

“From a death perspective, recent data has shown that one out of eight deaths in the age group of 25 to 34 has resulted from opioid, and not specifically fentanyl, but opioids. That’s a large number and you can imagine if you calculated the number of potential years of life lost,” he said.

Preliminary numbers from the chief coroner’s office indicate that fentanyl was involved in 165 deaths in Ontario in 2015, up from 154 the previous year and up considerably from 2010 when 86 deaths were reported.

Overall, 700 deaths in Ontario in 2015 are attributed to opioid overdoses.

But Huyer said that these numbers don’t compare to the opioid battle British Columbia has long been fighting.

“Year over year we are seeing a gradual increase (in overdose deaths) but not anywhere close to the dramatic change we have seen in B.C. in the last couple of months,” he said. “It has been a dramatic change in B.C. and that is likely because illicit powdered Fentanyl is being mixed in with other drugs and the people who are utilizing those drugs do not have the awareness of the Fentanyl being mixed in.”

Huyer also said his office also found a 23 per cent increase in emergency departments visits related to opioids and an 18 per cent increase in admission to hospitals related to opioids.

“As you know, there are prescription medications of fentanyl that are legal and are used as prescribed. They are certainly something that is helpful in pain (relief) in other areas. But it’s the misuse of those prescriptions and the illicit use of synthetic fentanyl that is very significant and really a game changer in causing the number of deaths that it has,” Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner, who chairs the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police Substance Abuse Committee, said at the conference.

“Our message is simple. Get the facts on fentanyl. Reach out for help and help us change what’s happening in our communities.”

Taverner referenced an instance in Hamilton where police seized what is believed to be the first fentanyl in liquid form in Canada. Fentanyl is usually prescribed in patch form but is also found in powder and tablet form. It is considered to be the most powerful and dangerous in its liquid form.

He also expressed concern over instances where carfentanyl – an even more powerful byproduct fentanyl – has been seized in Western Canada.

“Carfentanyl is 100 times more potent than Fentanyl,” he said. “Just to put it into perspective, 20 micro grams of carfentanyl is enough to kill someone. That is about the size of a grain of salt.”

The hope behind the training symposium is that officers who face opioids in the field are properly informed about its dangers and are trained on how to handle it. The OACP also intends on designing a strategy can be implemented to reduce the number of deaths related to opioids and stop it’s illicit components from trickling through Canadian borders from foreign countries.

Though the crisis is more prevalent in Canada’s western provinces, (British Columbia became the first province in Canada to declare a public health emergency in response to opioid overdose deaths) experts have long warned that Ontario is also susceptible.

Addiction experts with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) urged the province in November to launch a review of prescription painkillers sold in Canada and suggested opioid medications of higher doses be more strictly regulated.

In an effort to address the growing numbers, Ontario opted to relax the availability of an opioid antidote medication known as Naloxone. Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced in October that the antidote kit -- touted as a medication that can reverse the effects of opioids on a person’s body if administered promptly -- would be available in Ontario free of charge.

At the conference, Huyer went on to address how Ontario has trailed behind other provinces in terms of releasing data on opioid related deaths. Huyer said while it takes “a while to do a death investigation,” that they’re working to provide public data in a more timely way.