Kelly Best, 19, latest killed by fake Oxycontin in Saskatoon
A Saskatoon family is saying goodbye today to a young man who died of a drug overdose.
Kelly Best planned to become an electrician but his life was cut short last Saturday after taking pills, which he thought were Oxycontin 80. His family held an event to remember him on Friday.
Police say the 19-year-old is the third person to die in recent months from taking counterfeit Oxycontin. The pills contained a lethal dose of Fentynal, a potent narcotic.
"I don't think we can stress enough the concerns we have about public safety here," Saskatoon police spokesperson Alyson Edwards said.
Police don't know where the drug is coming from but they say it's not new and it's shown up in other provinces.
"What we have here is someone who is taking one drug and mass producing it to increase their profits and they're masking it as something it's not," Edwards said. "And they're doing that simply to make money."
Authentic Oxycontin pills have a blue-green coloured coating with white on the inside, police said. The counterfeit has a blue-green colour throughout.
Police say anyone buying any drugs off the street are taking a potentially fatal risk.
