REGINA – Moose Jaw police are warning that fake Oxycontin pills, which actually contain the opiate drug Fentanyl, are suspected to have caused the fatal overdose of a 27-year-old man this weekend.

Investigators fear the blue/green-coloured pills, stamped with the number “80,” are still circulating in the Moose Jaw area. Similar pills have been connected to a number of deaths in Saskatoon over the past year.

Following the man’s death on Sunday, police warned of the drug’s danger, describing Fentanyl as “a powerful, synthetic opiate which is similar, but more potent than, heroin or morphine. Some reports say illegally produced Fentanyl can be 100 times more powerful than Morphine.

Sergeant Cliff Froehlich with the Moose Jaw Police Service’s Community Program and Safety Service said Fentanyl is a particularly dangerous drug.

“It’s not prescribed, it’s not regulated. It’s unknown exactly what the content of the pills are for sure and having said that, it’s very difficult for the user to determine what the effects may be,” he told Global News.

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Earlier this year, RCMP and the Saskatoon Police Service seized more than 3,000 of the pills as part of “Project Forseti,” an investigation into organized crime which resulted in more than a dozen arrests.

Anyone with information about the distribution or origin of these pills is asked to contact the Moose Jaw Police Service at 306-694-7600 or Crime Stoppers at 306-694-TIPS (8477).