DECEMBER 7, 2024

Dear reader,

Ontario’s auditor general, Shelley Spence, didn’t hold back in her 941-page report released this past Tuesday, lambasting Doug Ford’s provincial government for its policy decisions tied to the redevelopment of Ontario Place, the province’s advertising budget, the state of Toronto’s public schools and much more. One of the report’s priorities was the government’s mishandling of the opioid crisis—Ontario’s opioid strategy, implemented in 2016, is severely outdated and does little to address existing needs or emerging risks. 

This criticism echoes a 2023 report by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network at St. Michael’s Hospital, Public Health Ontario and other partners, which found that rates of opioid-related fatalities among teens and young adults had tripled between 2014 and 2021. In more than 80 per cent of cases, fentanyl was a direct contributor.

Writer Lauren McKeon looked into the rise of fentanyl use among youth—and its devastating impact on one family—in 2018. Tragically, it’s the kind of story that has only become more common since.

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—Stéphanie Verge, features editor

Jaimie Farrell’s son Zion was 14 when he took a Xanax with a friend while playing video games. He had no idea it was laced with fentanyl. He died in his sleep

BY LAUREN MCKEON | AUGUST 15, 2018

Many teens tend to view prescription pills as mundane, just as common at parties as dime bags of pot. But those same pills are increasingly likely to be tainted with drugs of unknown origin and potency. When Jaimie Farrell’s son Zion came home one night in May of 2017, his eyes bloodshot, his mother was angry. He was obviously high—but at least he was home safe. She hugged him. “I’m mad at you,” she said, “but I love you.” They were the last words she ever said to her son, who died a few hours later in his sleep. From the beginning, reporters asked Farrell if Zion had perhaps taken fentanyl. The speculation made her furious; there was no way that drug could have reached her son. It was something, she thought, that seasoned drug users turned to, not kids experimenting with substances for the first time. When the coroner finally called with the cause of death, Farrell realized the truth: fentanyl is everywhere.

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