Police have confirmed the bodies of a 27-year-old man and a 35-year-old man were found in a car in the North End Monday.
Officers said drug paraphernalia was found in the car, and are investigating whether drugs like carfentanil and fentanyl could have played a role.
“Preliminary investigations show drug paraphernalia was present,” said Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jason Michalyshen Tuesday. “What the results of a toxicology report and an autopsy are, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to that.”
Crews were called to the 300 block of College Avenue Monday at around 11 a.m. regarding two people in a parked vehicle, possibly requiring medical assistance. Police said the two men in the car were both deceased.
READ MORE: Two bodies discovered in vehicle ‘unusual’: police
Officers said drug paraphernalia was found in the car, and are investigating whether drugs like carfentanil and fentanyl could have played a role.
“They need to understand when they are using illicit drugs, that there is that potential , that risk there may be something present fentanyl or otherwise that and they are putting their lives at risk and it's a gamble,” Michalyshen said.
In mid-September police seized 14-hundred carfentanil tabs in the city. It’s an illegal drug so powerful, a dose the size of a few grains of salt could be lethal.
More patients are dying from overdose and dealers can mix carfentanil into other drugs, said Dr. Ginette Poulin, who works with drug users at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.
Poulin said more patients are dying from overdose and dealers can mix carfentanil into other drugs.
“What's very scary is it’s kinda like Russian roulette,” she said. "Not only that dealer, but what else was mixed when they were producing cocaine, packaging their cocaine. What about the dealer before that dealer, and the one before that one.”
Poulin said carfentanil is most commonly mixed with cocaine, fentanyl, oxycodone and crystal meth. She explained that most people often are not aware of what they are buying, compared to what they are getting
She also added that she has been seeing fentanyl packaged like oxycodone.
The office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the investigation could take up to six months.
Winnipeg police said experimenting with drugs is dangerous and can affect anyone at any age.
“They need to understand when they are using illicit drugs, that there is that potential , that risk there may be something present fentanyl or otherwise that and they are putting their lives at risk and it's a gamble,” Michalyshen said.
