Acting Chief Answers Questions About High Potency Cocaine

By Robert Thomas

With media reports detailing higher deaths and higher potency cocaine - over 90 percent pure readily available the acting Chief of Police is unaware of it on Moose Jaw streets through drug seizures.

Asked by MJ Independent in a media scrum Acting Chief of Police Rick Johns said the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) does basic tests here to identify a drug while more detailed report must be conducted by an out of town laboratory.

“The cocaine and drugs that we seize have to send off to laboratories in order to get it tested. We don’t always get that information early on sometimes when the court process takes place as to what level and quality it is. So we can confirm it is cocaine,” Acting Chief Johns said.

Acting Chief of Police Rick Johns - MJ Independent file photo

High potency cocaine is showing up and causing deaths in other Canadian jurisdictions.

In April 2025 the RCMP published a circular where cocaine was seen as the lead drug for overdose deaths in Newfoundland overtaking fentanyl.

Additionally cocaine with purities of 90 percent plus was showing up in Newfoundland.

Johns said higher potency cocaine and other drugs can have a major impact upon users who are use to weaker cuts of the drug.

“We’re always concerned anything of pure quality ends up in the hands of somebody in Moose Jaw especially those who are use to cocaine that might be stepped on or lower potency because they might inadvertently overdose,” he said.

“They’re taking what they would usually would take but now they are taking something of a higher level of potency and that does increase the risk of overdose.”

Widely touted Narcanon has no effect on cocaine overdoses.

Narcanon works on opioids such as fentanyl while cocaine is a tropane alkaloid.

The reason for an increase in higher potency cocaine is there is a glut in the market in both production and successful importation. The product no longer needs to be cut - diluted - so it’s being sold in its pure form according to the CBC.