“Scotty was a good boy who went to a party on Boxing Day in December, 2014 and a few hours later he was dead,” said Lynne Festerini the still grieving mother of Scotty McKinnon, 27, who died as a result of a fatal overdose of Fentanyl, a powerful cancer drug that has made the rounds recently as a lethal party drug.
“That’s why we are here today to launch the Scotty McKinnon Fentanyl Community Taskforce,” Mrs. Festerini said. “To make sure that no other child dies like my son died."
The comments were made Friday at a news conference held at the Timmins Police Headquarters organized by Charlie Angus, Timmins James Bay MP in partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police, Timmins Police, Nishnawbe Aski Police and several other organizations who are committed to introducing measures to label, track and immobilize the powerful opioid painkiller known as Fentanyl.
“I didn’t understand just how powerful and dangerous this drug Fentanyl was until I heard about the tragic death of Scotty McKinnon,” said Charlie Angus, MP, and Timmins James Bay MP.
“In the wrong hands, this powerful and beneficial drug for those suffering from the pain of advanced cancer, is a deadly killer," Angus added.
Angus pointed out that this drug which comes in a slow-release patch worn by the cancer patient is a hundred times more powerful an opioid than morphine another painkiller used in cancer palliative care.
It's also one hundred times more powerful than heroin an illegal street drug.
When used illegally as a recreational party drug the user risks severe overdosing by taking in a few minutes the same quantity a patient under doctor’s supervision takes over a 48 hour period.
“Make no mistake about it, Fentanyl is not a Timmins problem, it’s not a Northern Ontario problem,” Angus said, “It is a North America-wide problem that requires immediate action by Health Canada and the US Department of Health.”
According to a CBC news story in 2006, a generic version of Fentanyl was added to the Ontario Drug Benefits formula.
Shortly after drug users began using the prescription drug by chewing, smoking or injecting it.
According to the CBC there is a high rate of death among first-time users.
The CBC story said that, from 2009 to 2011, an estimated 253 deaths in the province have been linked to Fentanyl, according to Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner – or more than three times the number of deaths linked to heroin., Only the far-more widespread oxycodone was connected to more deaths.
Taskforce members pointed that total is likely many times higher in the intervening four years since the statistics in the coroner’s report was released.
The taskforce established today commits itself to bring public awareness of the lethality of Fentanyl by highlighting the rapidity of death such as what occurred to Scotty McKinnon.
The task force will push for a “patch-to-patch” program that will require cancer patients to return their used patch to a licensed pharmacy for proper handling and disposal before being sold another.
The group would like to see a tracking system that has a bar code or serial number on each single Fentanyl patch to track its movement and identify those who had access to it.
Ontario Provincial Police Detective Constable Martin Mailloux-Ratte, and Communications Services Media Liaison Officer, Gillian Coughlin also spoke at the launch of the taskforce.
Officer Mailloux-Ratte said the OPP is involved with the investigations into the illegal obtainment, sale and distribution of Fentanyl and other illegal drugs in Ontario.
“I want to emphasize that in the wrong hands Fentanyl use is fatal,” said Mailloux-Ratte
Officer Coughlin encouraged the public to report any unauthorized use of Fentanyl to their local police. She also urged pharmacists and pharmacy employees to follow proper drug handling and security procedures and to report any suspected thefts immediately.
