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Out In The Open

Laced with fentanyl: A mother is shocked by her teenage son's overdose

Marie Agioritis got a call from her ex-husband saying her son had overdosed on what he thought was OxyContin, but was actually fentanyl.
Out in the Open ·
Kelly (left) and Kayle (right), Marie Agioritis’ two sons, Kelly (left) and Kayle (right) can be seen here. Since Kelly's death due to overdose four years ago, Agioritis has been an outspoken advocate for resources (Courtesy of Marie Agioritis)
Marie Agioritis went to Calgary with her husband, leaving her 17-year-old son Kelly in Saskatoon, home alone for the first time. It was the beginning of 2015, and Kelly was training for an electrical apprenticeship. 
Kelly Best (Courtesy of Marie Agioritis)

While his mother was out of town, Kelly visited his older brother Kayle's apartment the night after New Year's Day. Kayle was addicted to opioids and helped Kelly obtain a pill, which he thought was OxyContin.

Kelly snorted half of the crushed pill at his brother's and took the other half home with him.

It was pure fentanyl.

Soon after, Marie received a call from her ex-husband and Kelly's father, informing her that Kelly had overdosed and died.

"I know that Kayle didn't think that he was serving something up to his brother that was going to kill him. He never thought in a million years, obviously, that that would happen," she said. 

"When you watch one of your other children suffer with addiction and make horrible, horrible decisions...Kayle had overdosed, I don't know how many times. And not for a second did I think that I would be getting a phone call telling me that Kelly was dead."

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