It seems no family is guaranteed immunity from the appalling possibility that one of their members could die from an overdose of fentanyl, an opioid drug police and health care professionals are calling the most powerful and addictive drug to be ever seen on a Canadian street.

In its legally-prescribed form, fentanyl is used across Canada to control chronic pain in time-release patches. But in Western Canada, illicitly-made fentanyl pills, sold as fake OxyContin, are killing hundreds of people. The pills are manufactured by organized crime, dyed green to look like OxyContin. But the fake version is far more potent - fifty to a hundred times more deadly than morphine and five to fifteen times more deadly than heroin. Just two milligrams, the equivalent of a few grains of salt, are enough to kill and there’s no way of telling which pills contain a fatal dose.