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A powerful tranquilizer that is surfacing in Alberta’s unregulated drug supply cannot be reversed by standard opioid overdose treatments, warns an Alberta-based researcher and physician.
Medetomidine — a strong non-opioid sedative primarily used by veterinarians — is being more frequently detected in Alberta’s illicit drug supply, according to Dr. Monty Ghosh, an addiction medicine specialist who works in Edmonton and Calgary.
Red flags regarding this tranquilizer began emerging in December with reports of medetomidine becoming more prevalent in other provinces, said Ghosh.
“Since then we’ve really been looking at it and we’ve been seeing a stark increase in the amount of medetomidine that we’re seeing in [Alberta’s] drug supply,” said Ghosh, who is also an associate professor at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary.
Ghosh said there have been some previous cases of medetomidine popping up in Alberta’s drug supply, but never to the extent seen in the past few months. He said it is about twice as potent as some other tranquilizers.
Ghosh said researchers have been seeing medetomidine showing up in data ranging from wastewater testing in Calgary, drug spot testing and police drug seizure data.
Edmonton’s fire Chief says the fire department saw a major increase in opioid-related calls for service in 2025. As CBC’s Nicole Healey explains, the fire service is calling for more funding to keep up with the demand.
In Edmonton, the Spectrum drug testing program, offered by Queer & Trans Health Collective (QTHC), has also detected significant increases of the dangerous sedative in drug samples.
“People are anticipating doing fentanyl but upon our analysis, it’s fentanyl, benzodiazepine and medetomidine all in one sample,” said Kayla Halliday, QTHC’s harm reduction manager.
Halliday says the primary concern with the growing prevalence of medetomidine is its impact on potential emergency responses to drug poisoning.
“With fentanyl, you give someone Narcan, you wait a few minutes, they revive and you can go on your way,” said Halliday.
“With medetomidine in the mix, we are no longer expecting people to wake up because medetomidine doesn’t respond to naloxone.”
Ghosh said it is still important to try to administer naloxone to deal with the opioid component of the overdose, but “there’s not really an antidote to [medetomidine], per se.”
“For the common bystander … if they see an overdose [and] they’ve tried naloxone four or five times and it’s still not working, call for help,” Ghosh said.
A low heart rate of less than 50 beats per minute can indicate if someone who is overdosing has medetomidine in their system, Ghosh said.
In an emailed statement to CBC on Friday, a spokesperson from Alberta’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction said the province “is aware that medetomidine is in the illicit drug supply, but there have been zero deaths attributed to this adulterant in Alberta.”
The provincial spokesperson said opioid-related deaths in Alberta have decreased by 39 per cent since the peak in 2023 with most communities having returned to pre-pandemic levels, except Edmonton.
Shifts in the drug supply
Ghosh said medetomidine is primarily added to the drug supply to extend the sedative effects of the substances.
“The issue here is that people who are developing [and] manufacturing these drugs … are always looking for ways to prolong someone’s high,” Ghosh noted.
He said this means the mix of drugs in the supply can “change in the blink of an eye.”
“All it takes is a new dealer to set up shop in a certain city … which can shift what’s happening with the drug supply.”
According to Ghosh, the constant evolution of the illicit drug market means that the nature of overdoses — and the methods needed to treat them — are moving targets.
“We need to have every tool available on hand to deal with this. And this includes not only having Narcan, but also having places like supervised consumption sites where we can respond to these situations.”
An Edmonton Police Service spokesperson said its drug experts have seen medetomidine in the city, but have not observed a spike in overdose deaths related to the tranquilizer.
