RCMP say despite common perception, cocaine is responsible for most overdose drug deaths in the province and, unlike opioids, Naloxone cannot reverse the effects.

Inspector Dave Emberley of the RCMP says the reason is the purity, which is greater than it was just a few short years ago.

Emberley told reporters last week that people often have a cavalier attitude towards cocaine, but that, he says, can lead to trouble.

“They don’t realise the danger,” says Emberley. “What we’re seeing now in this province is the purity level has gone through the roof. Even a couple of years ago we would be seeing cocaine at 15, 20 per cent purity, and now we’re regularly seizing it, even at the gram level, at 95 per cent pure. There’s no antidote for cocaine, Naloxone doesn’t work for cocaine.” He warns, “when people are using it, they’re really playing a dangerous game.”