“When I read that it was a trigger, it hit home right away,” Jaimie Farrell said.  “I pray this really opens their eyes to how dangerous it is to take things they have no idea what they are.”
Farrell’s son, Zion, died in May 2016 of an accidental opioid overdose.  He was just 14 when he took a pill he thought was Xanax, but it contained a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Jaimie Farrell’s late son, Zion;  (Carmen Wong/CTV News)
“You don’t just take this pill and risk your life.  I am living proof that my son did not believe that the pill he was taking would end his life,” Farrell said.
Waterloo Region’s Integrated Drug Strategy issued a community drug alert Thursday, warning of a “contaminated drug supply” following five suspected overdose-related incidents involving youth.  It was on Nov. 2 when five youths consumed pills described as white or yellow pills, stamped “Xanax” and possibly containing LSD or fentanyl.
Waterloo Regional Police said seven people were hospitalized on Nov. 2 after consuming drugs.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board confirmed that some of those involved were students at Resurrection Secondary Catholic School in Waterloo.
James Toham, the deputy chief of the Waterloo Regional Paramedic Service, said five youths were taken to hospital, not seven, but responded to two other unrelated calls for suspected overdoses on the same day.
Police said the youths’ condition is not believed to be life-threatening.
“I’m so thankful that the outcome was just that they went to the hospital and had to leave because my son didn’t,” Farrell said.
Michael Parkinson, a drug strategist, formerly with the recently defunded Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council, has been in the field for 16 years.
“The scale of death and the scale of harm to young people and adults is off the charts,” Parkinson said.
He said that to prevent youth from using drugs, it will take more than education, but intervention from the neighborhood and government policy levels.