If you are either a member of the Ottawa community or in contact with those living in Ottawa, I’m sure you’ve heard a news report or two of the tragic deaths of teens in the city. The cause of death being due to that “one bad pill” or “seemingly” trusted pharmaceuticals. Instead of prescription drugs being consumed for their intended use, they are being distributed illegally and used recreationally. This is costing the lives of many bright, young and loved individuals.
The recent heart-wrenching stories of two young women from Ottawa’s west end have recently been in the news. They lost their lives overdosing on a counterfeit pharmaceutical opioid that was laced with dangerously potent contaminants like fentanyl. These devastating deaths have left a deep hole in the hearts of many and their cause of death has recently sparked widespread conversation of the epidemic-like usage of counterfeit pharmaceuticals by youth.
Public Health officials are taking action, as well as other members of the community to solve this life-risking problem and to prevent further tragedies. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Public Health and city police have sent out an alert that counterfeit prescription drugs containing fentanyl are turning up in the capital and are involved in suspected life-threatening overdoses.
These drugs are being used recreationally and even though many consider it’s usage as risky, youth are still using them to gain the effects of any drug: to get high. Little do they know that one pill can be hiding a lethal dosage of opioids. You think you’re getting a drug with known ingredients, but in reality, you are blindly ingesting a pill in which most of the substances are unknown to you. The Ottawa Citizen also illuminates the fact that a counterfeit drug is a product made illicitly in labs to mimic prescription pills, but contain unpredictable quantities of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
So where are people getting this stuff? Well, we don’t exactly know nor can we pinpoint the exact points of sale. They can be distributed by drug dealers, shared between friends, ordered online or traditionally, passed around at a party. It can be challenging to halt the passage of these lethal substances in the community. RCMP officials have noted that these illegal drugs are being distributed as pharmaceutical products or skin patches, suggesting it’s possible legitimacy to youth who may be unaware of the nature of counterfeit drugs.
If we know abusers or encounter a case of overdose, what can we do? If you are a witnessing an overdose, call 911. There is also an opioid overdose antidote that is publicly available, called Naxolene that works by temporarily reversing the effects of opioids, such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl and codeine.
Ottawa Public Health has published a list of pharmacies across the city that carry the lifesaving antidote that can be found here.
Naxolene should only be used in emergency situations, if you know anyone who is an abuser please take responsibility and get in touch with someone who can help intervene. Important to note is that while Naxolene can be an easy route for abusers to reverse overdoses, the easy access to this antidote could substantially increase the number of people abusing and OD’ing since they know that there is a drug that can reverse the effects of opiod overdose. However the only way to permanently and effectively defeat this drug crisis is to get professional help (e.g., addiction counselling or rehab).
To fight this spread of prescription drug use we need to be conscientious community members and take action to spread the message against the usage of these silent killers.
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