Fentanyl too powerful to resist for many users

Sure, there’s some fear out there.

But there’s fentanyl too.

And for some people, the drug will always overcome the fear of the drug.

“The number of deaths in the last few years should be enough to scare you sober. But fentanyl, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Trevor, 34, sitting in London’s temporary overdose prevention site, where he safely injects the opioid hydromorphone each day.

“I’ve watched 25 people in the last four years die from fentanyl. I hate it. I hate the stuff. I hate what it’s doing to people. I hate the impact it’s having on the community. Regardless of the amount of deaths and what it does to people, people are still using it.”

While the number of overdose deaths released by police and health officials this week might shock the general public, one number in particular has rattled London’s street community.

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Spencer, a well-known and loved homeless man in his 30s, was found outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral on Queens Avenue Thursday.

“This shouldn’t be happening. This one hurts,” Trevor said. “He would go out of his way to help someone without a thought of getting anything back.  A lot of people in the homeless life have gone cold and don’t feel like they’re listened to or helped or anything like that. Spencer was one of the few who realized that and went out of his way to help.”

Spencer was a cautious user, and would inject at the safe consumption site, Trevor said.

“He should be here. It just goes to show you how unstable fentanyl is. I tell people who use, you keep using fentanyl, sooner or later it’s going to kill you. It’s only a matter of time. You can be as safe as you want, take all the precautions, but ultimately because it’s that unstable it’s going to kill you.”

The overdose deaths will put some fear into many people, said Brian Lester, executive director of Regional HIV/AIDS Connection, which operates the safe consumption site.

“It is in the forefront  for many people — I could be next. That fear of, here I am struggling with addiction and this is happening to my friend, my neighbour, my brother, my sister.”

So why do so many people risk death? The high.

“Fentanyl is one of the heaviest opiates you can get on the market,” Trevor said.  “For an addict who uses hydromorphs or whatever and tries fentanyl, it’s a lot.”

There are different types of addiction to opioids, he adds.

“There are people who are managing it, getting to the point where they feel normal, functioning.  And then you get the hardcore ones that push the envelope and keep going and have no control over their addiction. Usually those ones don’t last long in this lifestyle.”

But he has seen a change in how people use fentanyl, in an attempt to ease its intensity and be safer.

“When it first came out people were injecting, now I see more people smoking it than injecting it.”

In his experience, most users experiencing fentanyl overdoses are using the powder itself, not from other drugs laced with fentanyl.

“It has happened.  Usually whoever puts that to sell, something happens. He gets talked to. It gets dealt with,” Trevor said.  “The reason why someone would do that is beyond me. Nobody wants anybody to die out there. It gets dealt with.”

The overdose deaths, especially Thursday’s, is hitting social and health services workers in London hard, Lester said.

“There is a bit of a sense of powerlessness. It has a profound impact because we’re all fighting so hard for this not to be happening. It is very reminiscent of the catastrophic multiple loss of early days in HIV and AIDS.” Lester said.

Some of the people dying now from overdoses were saved from HIV and AIDS, he said.

“Now we have people on really effective treatments, but those people living with HIV are now vulnerable to the opioid crisis. We have lost people who were HIV positive to the opioid crisis when they were finally able to have a hope of a longer life. It’s really challenging, what’s playing out. It’s like a dual impact over the decades. It’s hard to revisit.

His agency relies on staff to help each other and their clients through these hard days, Lester said.

“Our organization’s capacity to respond is in our DNA. We know how to honour, we know how to take care of each other, and we know how to support the community.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/RandyRatLFPress