An opioid crisis is bringing together friends and family members of overdose victims who want to support others going through the same pain. Fort McMurray residents Mari-Lee Paluszak, 55, and Holly Meints, 51, both lost sons to accidental overdoses last year. Both attended Overdose Awareness Day at the Wood Buffalo Regional Library last Thursday to help put a face to the drug overdose problem, and to promote a support group for people suffering the same grief as their own. Their new group, On A Dragonfly's Wings, is meant to provide mutual support for grieving family members of overdose victims. [continues 726 words]
Halfway through 2017, Fort McMurray is already nearing its year-end total for fentanyl overdose deaths last year, according to an Alberta Health report released Wednesday. A total of eight people have died from fentanyl overdoses in the first six months of 2017, compared to nine fentanyl overdose deaths over the whole of 2016. The report, Opioids and Substances of Misuse, shows that in the second quarter of 2017, a total of 119 people died in Alberta from apparent fentanyl-related drug overdoses, compared to 85 overdoses over the same period in 2016. [continues 351 words]
