The Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families is warning about the growing presence of a veterinary tranquilizer in the illegal drug supply in Windsor-Essex.
The shelter says in the past few weeks to months, medetomidine is being found in the fentanyl street supply.
Anastasia Adams is the shelter’s harm reduction program coordinator and says medetomidine poses unique risks because it can leave people heavily sedated for long periods.
“This is a drug that has never been approved for human consumption. It’s a large animal, veterinary tranquilizer,” Adams said.
“In particular, it is concerning because we support women, and they are particularly vulnerable to some of the side effects that we’re seeing, which is long periods of sedation.”
She says because medetomidine is not an opioid, it’s narcan resistant, and may leave users unresponsive even while they’re still breathing.
“The main concern is that it’s causing long periods of sedation. So someone looks like they might be experiencing a drug poisoning or an overdose, but their color is okay, which would be indicative of getting enough oxygen supply, but they can’t wake up,” she said.
“So they’re having long periods where they’re not able to be roused, we’re not able to wake them up, but they’re still breathing.”
Adams says 911 should be called if someone has shallow or intermittent breathing, or can’t be awakened after several minutes.
She adds that the shelter continues to provide harm-reduction supports aimed at giving people the information and tools they need to make safer choices.
“We do offer drug test strips and metetomidine is one of five that we have so you can test your supply and it’ll tell you if that particular sample is negative or positive for that drug,” said Adams.
“So if you know it’s in there, you can take extra precautions, which is always our goal to reduce harm.”
Adams is urging people to avoid using alone, stay with trusted individuals and take extra precautions if the drug is present in their supply.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says according to Toronto’s Drug Checking Service, medetomidine has been found in around 80 per cent of expected fentanyl samples tested in Ontario over 2026.