After losing three family members in the last year due to fentanyl overdoses, a local woman is taking action into her own hands.
Ivy Kennedy, the director of the Women of the Dawn Counselling Centre, is trying to raise awareness of the dangers of fentanyl in Regina.
“I am outraged at the numbers of our children dying from the opioid crisis in the City of Regina and across the province,” she said. “As we work daily in the North Central community, there seems to be nothing really being done.”
In the last year, Kennedy lost her grandson and granddaughter, who were both 28, and her nephew to fentanyl overdoses.
“I lost three grandchildren from the opioid crisis, my grandaughter a year and a half ago, grandson in January, and a nephew in December.”
Her granddaughter left behind five children, with her grandson dying after he thought he was receiving Xanax from a dealer, commonly used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. Instead, he received a pill laced with fentanyl.
“He went to sleep and never woke up,” she said.
To raise awareness, Kennedy said they would place signs around the City to educate people about the dangers of fentanyl.
“We don’t know how potent that fentanyl is; they don’t know how potent that is, so we need to warn them and tell them this is what can kill you,” she said. “Too many of our young people are dying, and that’s why we have to do something and be proactive in this issue.”
“For our children, it is educating them. They come from homes, and they hear their families talking about the issues; they will know that it kills,” she said. “Education is very important to our children, and it’s going to start educating them.”
Shay Scales, Kennedy’s granddaughter, lost her older brother and sister.
“I feel like a lot of the people that are buying off the street; they don’t actually know what they are getting,” she said. “It upsets me because my sister had kids, and my brother he didn’t want to die, so it does make me mad, and it’s hard for the whole family.”
After seeing what her siblings went through, she believes more education is needed.
“I’ve just seen how it affected them, and I just wouldn’t want that for any of my younger siblings to see me like that or for me to have the same problems that they had to deal with when they were on drugs,” she said. “Even in school, I never learned that drugs can be laced with certain things, and I think that a lot of the younger generation should know about it.”
Kennedy said she doesn’t feel the City has done an adequate job in addressing its opioid crisis.
“They have committees, but these committees they recommend, and they recommend, but nothing is done. We need something done today, not tomorrow.”
She noted that it isn’t just a lack of education but also what she feels is a lack of holding those who sell drugs accountable.
“What’s happening in communities is that drug dealers are walking out of the courthouse, coming out into the streets again and then reoffending and killing our children.”
Kennedy said she has already been in conversations with the Regina Police Service and is looking to expand those talks to the City of Regina, local school boards, FISN, and the Government of Saskatchewan.
The signs are expected to be placed at 4th Avenue and Albert and at the SARCAN located in North Central.
Kennedy added that they are looking to put more signs around the City.
