Early in the morning in Spring 2021, Steve Borisenko recieved the worst phone call a parent could get.  He was told that his son Jacob had died after taking anti-anxiety pills he bought off the street which his dad believes were contaminated with fentynal. Steve Borisenko does not want another parent to get a call telling them their child has died. Steve has turned his nightmare into advocacy work through a foundation called Jacob’s Wall. He is working on a smartphone app that will help people who are  danger of a drug overdose. 

We’re starting to see the final numbers for opioid overdoses and deaths in Niagara in 2021. More people were taken to hospital for a suspected overdose. But the most shocking is the number of people who died. While we don’t have the final count it will be around 200 people– that’s average of 16 deaths per month and 50 more than 2020 – when we were second behind Toronto.

If you are at risk on an overdose please make sure you are with someone and one of you is  carrying a noloxone kit. Kits are available at many social service agencies and pharmacies across the Region.