View From the Legislature

Last Friday I had the opportunity as the Minister of Health to speak to students at Shaftesbury High school in Winnipeg and Steinbach Regional Secondary School in Steinbach about fentanyl awareness.

Our government has launched a new social media awareness campaign in response to growing concerns over the number of reported overdoses due to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid narcotic. The campaign will continue for several weeks and it is a part of an overall strategy that we have to reduce the amounts of illicit opioids like fentanyl and carfentanyl in Manitoba.

There has been a significant increase in fentanyl-related overdoses that have been observed in the past few years and this growing trend is of great concern. We recognize that we must expand our efforts to ensure that everyone is aware that these drugs kill.

Our goal is to look at both immediate and long-term actions needed to prevent and respond to overdoses in Manitoba and there are a number of initiatives that we have been working on, such as the distribution of naloxone, an overdose antidote, throughout Manitoba. But make no mistake; naloxone is not a safety net for a fentanyl or carfentanyl overdose. It may mitigate the risk, but it will never eliminate the risk. Fentanyl is a danger to everyone, it does not discriminate, and there are young people here in Manitoba who have died from an overdose of fentanyl and carfentanyl, never knowing that it was contained and mixed within the drug they were using.

Awareness and education are needed to warn people about the dangers posed by these drugs and of their possible presence in other illicit drugs.

There are more things we can do, there are more things we must do, and we must continue to work together. This is a community issue and we need your help. For more details, visit www.manitoba.ca/fentanyl or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBGov