61 HOW CANADA GOT ADDICTED TO FENTANYL continued • Buyers are assured their packages won’t get seized at the Canadian border. To avoid the risk of detection, says a supplier from China, he conceals the purchase alongside urine test strips. Not that there is a need to worry: Canadian border guards cannot open packages weighing less than 30 grams without the consent of the recipient. • The supplier, who identified himself only as Alan, says he has two customers in Canada. He e-mails photos of fentanyl hidden inside silica-desiccant packets – the type normally used when shipping goods such as electronics – and a screen shot of a recent order from Canada, including a shipping address for a clothing store in British Columbia's picturesque Okanagan Valley. • Demand for a replacement for OxyContin also gave rise to another problem – a counterfeit version of the drug laced with illicit fentanyl smuggled into Canada and processed for street sale in labs.The labs would typically dye their pills green to mimic the 80-milligram OxyContin pills favoured by opioid abusers, and sell them as "greenies" or "shady eighties." • In comparison to Europeans, North Americans rely heavily on pharmacological solutions to medical woes. In a culture whose citizens pop over-the-counter pills to treat every minor ailment, says Sgt. Darin Sheppard, of the RCMP's Federal Serious and Organized Crime Synthetic Drug Operations, many drug users view the "greenies" as deceptively harmless. • Police across Canada have shut down 20 fentanyl labs since that first major bust in April 2013, mostly operated by organizedcrime groups, according to a Globe review. • The Canada Border Services Agency, the first line of defence in preventing illicit goods from entering the country, is responsible for clearing international mail. In 2015, the agency made just under 11,000 illicit-drug seizures, half of which came through the postal system. • As long as Chinese officials do not crack down more aggressively on exporters, medical experts say, the responsibility for change falls squarely on those in power at the end of the supply chain. Suppliers in China hide fentanyl in decoy packages before shipping the drug to Canada. Sometimes they conceal the drug alongside urine test strips. Fentanyl from China is sometimes hidden in silica desiccant packages. continued
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