Warning issued for highly potent synthetic opioid hitting Winnipeg streets

Winnipeggers are being warned about a highly potent synthetic opioid, considered to be four times stronger than fentanyl, now being sold as Percocet in Winnipeg.

“This is no different than when fentanyl came out. It’s a different drug. But they’re getting more toxic. The thing is, we can talk over and over about the new drug that keeps coming out. There will always be a new drug. That’s what drug people…gangs do,” said Arlene Last-Kolb.

“It’s incredibly hard for me as a parent to wrap my head around that we can’t figure this out.”

Winnipeg Regional Health authorities say that street connections drug checking services recently detected a new drug called metonitazine, which they say is in pills and is being sold as Percocet in Winnipeg.

Even in small amounts, metonitazine can cause life-threatening respiratory depression.

“The pill had a marking of ‘TEC’ on one side and a scored line on the other. 

It was tested at Street Connections on Dec. 19, 2025. This local testing was inconclusive, so it was sent to Health Canada Drug Analysis Services. The results showed <1 per cent metonitazine. This is the first time metonitazine has been detected at Street Connections,” according to Supervised Consumption Services & Manitoba.

“Our son has been gone for 11 years. And life isn’t easier, it’s just different. Ok, because I will always wonder what will he be doing right now at 35? Where would he be? Would he be coming to this club? Absolutely, with his own children.”

Last-Kolb lost her son to a fentanyl overdose in 2014. Since then, she has continued to advocate for harm reduction and safe supply and warns that this new drug is extremely dangerous.

“We don’t have time. We need better, we need more. We need to know that our loved ones can get a safer, regulated supply and be here for tomorrow,” said Last-Kolb.

CityNews reached out to Minister of Addictions Bernadette Smith for a comment regarding the drug alert, but she did not respond.