According to the Calgary police, over the past two weeks, two people died and fourteen others were hospitalized after using the street drug fentanyl. The said records of death and hospitalization heightens the public health crisis which lead them to deal with it.
Respectively, Alberta releases a tally of casualties connected to fentanyl from January to June of this year has been 145, and 45 of these was the biggest cluster in the province, which is found in Calgary.
Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta in Calgary, said to the Calgary Police Commission that these have reached double in numbers in the middle of the year. He added, that it hasn't slowed down. And we have to keep the message going out because fentanyl kills and it could be hiding in any taken drugs.
Fentanyl drug is supposedly a pain killer in hospitals. However, there are forbidden and more stronger versions of the drug were made from illegal drugs and sold to consumers on the streets.
Conversely, Schiavetta even added, that the dangerous thing about this drug is not made in a pharmaceutical lab- it means it can be taken anywhere and just one tablet today and tomorrow the person is dead.
Kyle Drewniak, 29 and one of the consumers started using the drug 18 months ago. He stated, that at first he didn't like the feeling he get after the usage. He was just influenced because the drug is everywhere and eventually he started to get over the effects on his body like a sickness. Then he started to enjoy using fentanyl.
Afterwards, he became hooked and addicted, began taking from eight and ten fentanyl pills a day. He even stressed that instead of liking, it became a need for him. Whenever he withdraws from the usage, his body wouldn't be able to sleep. For him it was everywhere that even his close friends are the drug dealers.
Calgary police recognize that they need to put their effort on educating the public about the dangers of using fentanyl. In response, last summer Alberta Health Services extensive a program to combat fentanyl deaths. From July to the middle of September, they gave about 140 of the kit containing naloxone, a drug that decreases the effect of fentanyl, and there were four lives that were saved.
