At yesterday's board meeting, the Cypress Health Region announced a Take-Home-Naloxone program.

Come November 28, it'll be free for individuals at risk of an opioid overdose to get the medicine and kit through the health region.

"If our numbers in terms of the people we're actually seeing give us any indication... typically there's more than that behind the scenes that aren't ready, and those people are the higher risk, and those are the ones we're hoping to reach out to with this," said the health region's director of mental health, Penni Caron, regarding the number of people in need of the kit.

Naloxone reverses effects of opioids, but its effects don't last as long so multiple doses may be needed.

Amanda Maxner is a centralized intake worker, and said there's also education that goes into making life more safe for people with addiction.

"Not only giving education on what the risk factors are for overdose, as well as how to identify overdose, but also what to do when someone has overdosed," she said. "So as for putting them in the recovery position, calling 9-1-1, if it's opioids administering the naloxone."

Fentanyl is an opioid 50 to 100 times as strong as heroin, and a new drug, carfentanil - which is considerably more potent than fentanyl - is also being found on the streets, mixed with heroin, making it more deadly.

Just last week a man was sentenced in Swift Current Provincial Court to over two years for trafficking drugs, and he claimed he thought he was dealing heroin, even though there was carfentanil mixed with it.