Interior Health issues toxic drug overdose alert for Nelson and Trail, B.C.

Interior Health has issued a toxic drug overdose alert for Nelson, Trail, and surrounding areas on Jan. 24, after service agencies warned the health authority about what they were seeing among drug users.

Dr. Silvina Mema, Interior Health's deputy chief medical health officer, said community partners informed them on Friday that highly toxic drugs could be circulating in the area.

The agencies told the health authority that affected individuals are passing out on the street, appearing confused or severely impaired, Mema added.

The drug affecting them is believed to be a strong sedative called medetomidine, a tranquilizer normally used in veterinary medicine, and recently detected in the local drug supply.

"It's all over the interior region," Mema said. "We know, because we have drug checking services, and we can tell from doing the tests on the samples that people bring."

B.C. declared a public health emergency due to drug-related overdoses and deaths in 2016, although the crisis has since become more dangerous, with stronger and less predictable drugs circulating.

In November 2025, health officials linked a spike in 911 calls and overdoses in several parts of the province to the potent opioid fentanyl being mixed with medetomidine.

Medetomidine does not respond to naloxone, Mema said, but life-saving naloxone kits should still be used in the case of an overdose as the drug could be mixed with opioids that do respond it.

Mema says they've yet to see any deaths reported by the B.C. Coroners Service connected to the toxic drug.

"We are looking into the possibility of deaths having occurred in the past few days in the Trail, Nelson and area," she said.

CBC News has contacted the B.C. Coroners Service requesting information on any deaths reported or confirmed in connection with the toxic drug and overdose alert.

The alert is in effect until the end of January.