Brandon police chief warns of spike in dangerous drugs

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Brandon’s chief of police is raising serious red flags about increased “toxicity” and possible “lethality” of drugs currently circulating in the area, and about an alarming number of overdoses this month in the western Manitoba city.

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“There is a drug supply that is exceptionally dangerous right now,” Brandon Police Service (BPS) Chief Tyler Bates said while speaking at a Dec. 13 Brandon Police Board meeting in the western Manitoba city.

Bates spoke to the board last week, as part of what are regular updates on the police service’s operations, crime statistics and trends, and he said drug overdoses and highly toxic drugs continue to be at the top of the list of concerns for Brandon’s police.

“From a statistics standpoint, the one highlight I would like to make is the continuing crisis as it’s related to the use of methamphetamine in the city of Brandon,” Bates told the board.

“It’s an ongoing concern and I highlighted this the last time as well. I would say that certainly we have not seen an improvement with respect to the particular issue, so much so that yesterday I felt the need to put out an alert to the community and to the public with respect to what is a pattern of increasing toxicity and drug deaths in the last couple of years.”

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According to Bates, the city of Brandon, which is home to approximately 51,000 people, saw three toxic drug deaths in 2022. That number rose to five deaths in 2023, and Bates said there had, as of last Friday, been seven toxic drug deaths in Brandon so far this year.

“So that’s an alarming pattern,” Bates said. “It speaks to an increase in lethality.”

Currently of concern for Brandon police is also the fact that there have been a total of six non-lethal drug overdoses in the city in December alone, with about two weeks still left to go in the month.

“To have six overdoses in this amount of time in the month of December, that’s something that is troubling and concerning to us,” Bates said.

BPS is also reaching out to Brandon residents directly to warn them about drugs circulating in the area, as last week the department put out a public alert stating, “This month, our community has seen an alarming rise in overdoses, and we want to remind everyone of the very serious risks associated with drug use and the elevated risk in overdoses this month. Please be cautious.

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“If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, we urge you to seek support. The danger of accidental overdose is very real, and we are genuinely concerned about the impact and wellbeing of our community.”

Bates warned the police board that if the drugs circulating now continue to get into people’s hands in Brandon, police worry that there will be more overdoses and more deaths, and he said they are mobilizing police departments and resources as they try to get a handle on the situation.

This is now the second time since September that serious concerns have been raised about drugs making the rounds in Brandon, as on Sept. 13 the Brandon chapter of the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network (MHRN) posted a notice on their social media that a substance sold in Brandon that the buyer believed was methamphetamine contained 21% fentanyl.

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“That’s just the reality of the state we are in right now; we just have a toxic supply of drugs,” Brandon MHRN coordinator Solange Machado said in a September interview with the Winnipeg Sun.

“There is a lot of stuff going around that is making people sick, and there are more and more potent drugs that people maybe aren’t used to.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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