McMan Director corrects misquote of overdose deaths in local media report
LETHBRIDGE – McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Southwest Zone Director Shannon Hansen is clarifying a quote used in a Lethbridge publication that indicated 47 people may have died of overdoses recently.
“I did state that the number 47 was told to me,” Hansen explains,”however it wasn’t the source that I can even say is credible or accurate, because oftentimes the information is confused between overdoses and deaths. And that was, from my recollection, the statement that I had made.
“I was also asked how many people I’ve known who have been impacted…it was referred to the entire opioid crisis, not just the last couple of weeks. So, our clients or client’s family members who have passed away from overdoses, there are five clients that I know of over the course of the last year.”
McMan Youth and Family services serves about 200 clients on a regular basis. Over the last several weeks, employees have been on high alert after information was revealed that in Lethbridge alone, there had been dozens of overdoses either due to a bad batch of street drugs going around, or the addition of carfentanil to the drugs users were buying.