Ottawa teen who overdosed on fentanyl touring Canada to educate youth about addiction
Leila Attar, 19, says friend saved her life after overdose last fall
If it weren't for the frantic banging on her door from a concerned friend, Leila Attar might not be alive today.
The Ottawa teenager said her drug dealer had given her a handful of Percocet without her knowing the pills had been laced with the deadly opioid, fentanyl. Her dealer knew, according to Attar, but he didn't bother to let her know.
She had read the news about the overdose crisis, but it hadn't fazed her at the time.
Having worked together at the same restaurant, Attar thought she could trust a colleague. But the bad batch of pills caused her to be "violently sick" for about a week last fall. It was only after another friend rushed to Attar's home when she ignored her text messages that she was able to get medical attention.
He did admit to me there was fentanyl in there and he knew about it and that was my turning point.- Leila Attar
"This guy's not my buddy, he's not my pal. He wants to make money off me. He did admit to me there was fentanyl in there and he knew about it and that was my turning point," Attar told CBC Radio's All in a Day host Alan Neal on Monday.
"That was where I was, like, [either] I keep doing this and die and my whole family and people who care about me will suffer, or I get myself together and whatever it takes to do that."
Teen learned dangers of opioids
The 19-year-old said she has learned the hard way about what drug addiction can do to a person after that potentially life-threatening ordeal. Now, she is spending much of July going from city to city educating youth about the dangers of opioids and hearing other people's stories about their struggles with drug addiction.
One of the messages she wants to get across, drawn from her own experience, is that no matter how well you know your dealer, he or she doesn't care about your well-being. They only care about making a quick buck.
"I keep having to stress that. They're not your buddy or your pal. Even if you go and you smoke with them or whatever. It doesn't matter, right? This is their job," she said.
After turning her life around last November, she said her passion for helping people is what motivated her to turn her dark past into something good.
Overdose death of Kanata teen 'hit home'
The death of 14-year-old Chloe Kotval of Kanata last February "hit home," Attar said. Ottawa police said pills laced with fentanyl were found by Kotval's side after she died of an overdose.
Attar's journey across the country is coordinated mostly through social media. She said she messages parents and other community members to find groups to talk to. She's hopping on a Via Rail train to Toronto on Tuesday for her next stop.
A common thread among the people she's spoken to so far is that often it's people with mental health issues who turn to opioids for a quick escape.
"If I can talk to people across the country and I can really get to the heart of what's going on and why people are using, maybe instead of being reactive in Canada we can be proactive and say, how do we address at-risk youth? How do we get services and programs in there so people don't have to suffer to the point of wanting to use something that may or may not kill them?" she said.
"It's hard to watch, but I think it's necessary."