Opioid overdoses: Here's what Ottawa students are saying

Police and public health officials have issued warnings about the presence of pills that might containfentanyl on Ottawa's streets.

Parents have packed public forums to figure out how to keep their children from overdosing. Mayor Jim Watson has called for more funding for treatment centres and more timely overdose data.

But what do Ottawa teens among those most at risk of unknowingly ingesting something laced with the potentially deadly opioid think about the crisis?

• Once again, parents pack opioid meeting in Kanata in search for answers
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On Tuesday, CBC News asked high school students outsideLisgar Collegiate Institute in the city's downtown for their thoughts on the recent spate of opioid overdoses.

Almost every teen CBC spoke with had heard of the death of Chloe Kotval, a Grade 9 student at All Saints High School who was found unresponsive by her mother earlier this month. On Monday, police confirmed that pills found near Kotval's bodytested positive for fentanyl.

The students'responses have been edited for length.

Zoe Bevan

"It's terrible that it's happening. And I'm sure that everybody probably at any school knows someone who's been affected by it. And social media has kind of been blowing up. So you know a lot of students at Lisgarhave been following the crisis really closely recently. And we all agree that it's a huge epidemic and that it's getting worse and worse.

"[People are doing drugs because of] the stress of school, not enough resources for mental health issues, not enough places to go when you're having these kind of problems."

LachlanDouglas

"It's just scary. Apparently people are spiking [fentanyl] into just about anything, including marijuana. It's like the luck of the drawwith whatever you do. It's everywhere. And thisChloething is really eye-opening.

"People arejust, I think,being a lot more cautious about what they're doing at parties and whatever. If there's a pill or something that gets handed to someone, it's less likely that they're going to take it now that they know aboutfentanylbeing in just about everything."

Kevin Koh

"I think it's pretty scary, I guess, that it's going around in pills and stuff ... Downtown we don't see that very often. I heard that it's in Kanata mostly, and maybe it's going to make its way downtown, but I don't know anybody that's taking it right now.

"At home, my parents have already given me a talk about it, to avoid taking these drugs. Even though you think that you know what it is, you don't know for sure what's inside the pills."

AmitNayak

"I think it's a shame that it's affecting my peers and my fellow students. I think it can be avoided with the proper education on drugs and how we can avoid illegal drug usage and unsafe drug usage. So, I think that it's just a matter of educating students in the proper way and letting them know what's out there to kind of keep them safe.

"I personally don't know that many students who take drugs. I know there are students who do take drugs in Ottawa ... I think the conventional drugs such as marijuana, crack cocaine, even some psychedelic mushrooms. It really depends. But I think people are kind of getting a sense that they're not the safest things."