Fentanyl has been a dominant news story across B.C. including Langley, claiming around two dozen lives locally in 2016.
• Around 700 B.C. residents have died from overdoses this year, with at least 350 of those deaths coming as a result of fentanyl, a synthetic drug so powerful, an amount the size of a grain of salt can cause an overdose.
• A funeral director in Aldergrove told the Times he is organizing three to four services a month for families who have lost loved ones to the deadly drug.
• Around 80 people attended a fentanyl forum in October in Langley.
• Naloxone — the life saving tool that reverses an opioid overdose — is now carried by Langley RCMP and Langley City firefighters and paramedics. A ‘how-to’ use Naloxone forum was recently held in Walnut Grove.
• Two Walnut Grove Secondary graduates died of drug overdoses in 2016.
Their friends and family made a powerful awareness video about the aftermath and loss they feel.
• There is no end in sight to the fentanyl crisis as even more powerful synthetic drugs hit the streets, including Carfentanil which is 100 times more potent.