A drug-awareness campaign geared towards younger adults is running in the Bow Valley this summer.
The campaign is an initiative of the Bow Valley Opioid Task Force — a group of concerned organizations and citizens that came together to create an awareness campaign focused on recreational drug use and opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil. In the fall of 2017, a few drug-related incidents raised concerns about opioid usage locally and drove early interest in the initiative.
“It was being made aware of a couple of incidents that did occur where drugs had been found during an overdose, they had been sent for testing and it was carfentanil that was found in the testing,” said Alison Gerrits, director of community services at the Town of Banff. “Just hearing that, it was motivation enough to say we really do need to make sure that people who are using drugs recreationally in the Bow Valley are aware.”
The group applied for a community opioid awareness grant in December. A month later, the application was approved and the Bow Valley opioid awareness campaign was awarded $35,000 from the Province of Alberta.
Calder Bateman, an Edmonton-based marketing and communications agency, was chosen to design the campaign. Gerrits said that the company was selected for the project because it has strong experience with drug awareness campaigns and with the 18-30 year old demographic. The campaign is using more modern platforms like Facebook and Instagram but it will also have more traditional mediums like print posters, pamphlets and mirror decals. There’s also resource cards on signs of an overdose — what to look for, what to do and how to use and where to get Naloxone, the medication that can temporarily block or counter the effects of opioids.
The campaign will be doing radio spots on local channels and they’ll also be screening a video ahead of films at the Banff Lux Theatre and Movies Under the Stars this summer.
“We as a group, we don’t want to fear monger,” said Gerrits. “And I think we’ve been very careful, we wanted to have a campaign which would appeal to a young adult audience.”
Other campaigns in Alberta and across Canada often focus on addiction that can result from a medical prescription, when an opioid has been initially prescribed as a pain reliever to manage a surgery or injury. Gerrits said that in the Bow Valley they had to focus the campaign and the task force chose to address more recreational drug use.
“So individuals who may partake in, you know, taking ecstasy or cocaine or some other kind of drug and not realize that it’s laced with fentanyl or carfentanil,” said Gerrits. “And what the information that is out there is basically saying that a very small amount of these substances can cause fatal effects. And so that was what we wanted to get out there was basically just the message that you just don’t know what you’re purchasing on the street.”
Gerrits said that there had been questions raised online by locals as to whether the task force had conducted testing on every drug in the Valley.
“The point is, that it has been found that, across North America, fentanyl or carfentanil has been found in every type of recreational party drug that is out there. It has been found laced in every kind of drug you could buy,” Gerrits said. “I mean, so are all of those drugs tainted with this in Banff? Obviously, we can’t answer that question. The point is you’re taking a huge chance because you won’t know it’s laced until it’s too late, right?”
Before the campaign launched, the task force conducted a survey to establish awareness about opioids beforehand. They gathered approximately 450 responses in the Bow Valley. Gerrits said that they will conduct the survey following the campaign to see how awareness on the issue may have been impacted.
“We’ll see if it makes a difference. I think at the end of the day, our goal was to reduce [or] to prevent any incidents of opioid poisoning or overdose,” said Gerrits. “So that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do and, of course, to educate bystanders to recognize the signs of an overdose and to know what to do.”
The campaign is in its first phase which runs from July to Labour Day weekend. Gerrits said that the second phase will run in the winter, to accommodate seasonal influxes.