Due to the increase of fentanyl related deaths and overdoses across the country in the past year, members of the RCMP want to inform communities about the dangers of this opioid, and also provide them with the tools to spot a problem, and where they can go for help.

That was the goal last night at the Lacombe Memorial Centre, as a Fentanyl Awareness Presentation was put on by the Red Deer/Lacombe Rural Crime Watch Association.

The presentation was put on Corporal Brad McIntosh, who is a team leader with the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement and Response Team, or CLEAR, and he specializes in investigating drug labs and their activities.

He says the stigma of being known as a community with a fentanyl problem does more than just provide bad PR. He says a community's reaction and attitude to an opioid crisis usually has a direct impact on those who are suffering, and whether or not they choose to get help.

"Within a community you need to have the strength to be able to support people that are in situations, whether it’s by choice or not by choice, are opioid abusers, and that's a big ask for a community to help out that way, because it's a difficult addiction to defeat."

He says having non-judgmental support is crucial to helping addicts, since 75% of the opioid addicts in Canada right now, are as a result of abuse of a prescription pain medication.

McIntosh says once that prescription runs out, the user could possibly seek other forms of pain killers, which can lead them down a dark road which could end in addiction and abuse.

For more information or to seek treat for an opioid addiction, you can visit the Rural Opioid Dependency Program through AHS here.