Overdose-related calls are on the rise within the Saint John, N.B., space, prompting police to warn about harmful and doubtlessly lethal medication circulating throughout the province.
For one New Brunswick mom, that reminder hits near house.
Tanya Laybolt says her son, who’s in his early 30s, has been battling addiction for greater than a decade. Lately, she says she’s observed alarming adjustments — together with an consuming dysfunction — since his relapse in October 2024.
“I consider no matter was laced in that drug that he took the final time altered his thoughts,” she mentioned.
“It’s killing individuals. It’s tearing households aside. It’s killing individuals’s thoughts. My son, he’s so good. It’s exhausting for him to place a full sentence collectively now.”
The chief director of Avenue B Hurt Discount, a non-profit group that serves Saint John’s marginalized communities, says blended or spiked medication can have various half-lives, which ends up in unpredictable results.
“You may take a drug as soon as and one of many drug’s results wears off as a result of half-life. However in case you do it once more, it’s going to then improve the half-life of the opposite one, which may result in fatalities or all types of medical issues,” Laura MacNeill defined.

Avenue B affords provides equivalent to naloxone kits, which may reverse the results of opioid overdoses, and is providing free drug testing to assist customers perceive what they’re utilizing.

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“We’ve been seeing cocaine blended with benzos. So, that’s the higher and the downer. Crystal meth blended with benzos; there’s numerous benzos. Our machines picked up nitazenes, which is a stronger opioid — it’s about 5 to 25 occasions stronger than fentanyl,” she mentioned.
Laybolt says it took her son 10 visits to the emergency room earlier than he lastly acquired assist. Having battled addictions herself and now 29 years sober, Laybolt says she’s seen habit first-hand however nothing compares to the toxicity of right this moment’s road medication.
“I really feel for everybody, as a result of I do know what it looks like. There’s not sufficient employees, nor sufficient house for what we’re coping with proper now. They’re overworked,” she mentioned.
Because the drug provide grows deadlier, Laybolt is pleading not only for consciousness but in addition for compassion and extra assets that would save lives.
— with a file from International Information’ Rebecca Lau
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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