DEATH FROM FENTANYL
Kensington police officer is trying to educate young people
A Kensington police officer is trying to teach kids about the danger of dying from using fentanyl.
It started with a question from one kid in Kensington.
“Is fentanyl really as dangerous as the news says it is?”
As of last Friday morning, about 1.2 million people had heard the answer.
Const. Robb Hartlen, of the Kensington Police Service, was working last Monday and noticed a group of young people hanging around in cars at a local school. He stopped to check on them and have a chat and one teen said he had a question “about that fentanyl drug.”
Many would have simply answered yes and moved on, but Hartlen decided to use that as a teaching moment. His conversation with the teens really opened his eyes.
“It stunned me – I thought everyone knew the dangers of it,” said Hartlen.
“So when I was done with them, I thought, well if this group of kids are wondering, then there is probably 10 times as many out there wondering, but won’t ask.”
Hartlen also had an image on his phone that proved helpful. It was sent to him by a friend, who works in law enforcement in Ontario and had been passed around police circles for a while. It shows three vials with a white substance in each, labeled ‘heroin,’ ‘fentanyl,’ and ‘carfentanil,’ with a decreasing amount of content in each.
Fentanyl has only a pinch of white grains in its vial, while carfentanil has only a couple.
It represents the amount of each substance needed to kill an average adult.
Hartlen uploaded the image to the Town of Kensington’s police Facebook page with a few paragraphs of text explaining why he was making the post and the question that led to it.
“Do I think the media is sensationalizing the Fentanyl epidemic in Canada?” wrote Hartlen.
“Not at all! I wish they talked about it more every day!”
Hartlen went on to explain that fentanyl is an extremely powerful painkiller, about 100 times more potent than morphine. A few grains of the pure substance is enough to kill a human and even people who just come into physical contact with it can be affected. Carfentanil isn’t meant for human consumption as it is several times more potent than fentanyl.
The post went viral on Facebook over the next couple of days, was shared more than 12,989 times and reached more than one million people.
It’s great to have so much attention being brought to this serious issue, said Hartlen, especially because many of the people sharing the post are quite young or parents.
“There is that discussion and people are wondering about it. They’re trying to have that talk or that conversation with their friends and family about it.”
Fentanyl overdoses and related deaths has been a growing concern in parts of western Canada for several years, but the drug has only recently started becoming available to users in Eastern Canada.
RCMP Cpl. Andy Cook, of the Drugs and Organized Crime Task Force, said Friday that Island Mounties have yet to seize any fentanyl, but they are hearing rumours on the street about it being here.
There have been confirmed seizures in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, said Cook, so there’s no reason to believe the drug isn’t also becoming available here.
Part of his job is to go into schools and talk to kids about topics like this one, so he’s glad Hartlen’s post is helping to spread that knowledge.
“It’s a popular topic whenever we go anywhere,” said Cook.
“People educating themselves, that’s a good thing. They know the dangers of it and hopefully everybody here will steer clear of it.”
Hartlen also intends to build on the momentum his post’s reach has given this topic.
He’s organized a 30-minute discussion with a number of experts that he plans to stream online over Facebook Live on May 19. Anyone wanting to participate can log on to the Kensington Police Service’s Facebook page around 10 a.m. that day. The recording will also be available after its live broadcast.