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Newton receives two doses of synthetic heroin three times a day — one dose taken orally, and one injected. He injects alone in a room, supervised by a nurse watching on a webcam.

Newton believes the program is already helping him: “My diet has already changed,” he says. “Everything has changed.” He’s now hoping to find a place to live that supports addicts and to move on “instead of being trapped.”

In the meantime, those on the front lines wait anxiously for what comes next in the ever-changing opioid crisis.

Ottawa police recently confirmed that the synthetic opioid carfentanil — a drug 100 times more potent that fentanyl — has been found in seized heroin caches in the city. Shelter officials knew it was here. For one thing, Hopkins says, carefentanil overdose victims tend to present differently: they often arch backwards and stiffen during overdoses. It can take up to 10 doses of naloxone to revive them, she says.

Hopkins worries the dangerous new drug will only make a bad situation worse in the ByWard Market.

Inner City Health used to concentrate on stabilizing the lives of their clients: finding them better housing and improving their health. They still do that work, Hopkins says, but increasingly their focus is on more immediate questions.

“How are we going to keep people alive today? How are we going to keep people alive over the next four hours? What is happening at this moment outside? What drugs are outside right now? Where are people using? Do they have naloxone?

“People’s lives are on the line right now. I have been around this community for almost 10 years and I have never seen anything like this.”

Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia

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