A night of dinner and hanging out with friends would turn out to be the last time Jody McLennan saw her husband alive.

She woke up in the early hours of Feb. 11 to find Novo unresponsive, and not breathing.

“He just went to sleep and never woke up again,” McLennan told CityNews.

His death shocked her, especially since she says the coroner’s report showed the 25-year-old man was perfectly healthy and had no trauma to his organs.

“Everyone automatically assumed it was fentanyl because he had done some coke the night before,” she said.

McLennan says police and doctors told her the cocaine was most likely laced with fentanyl, a dangerous opioid that is commonly used as a pain killer in hospitals. The cocaine may also have been laced with carfentanil, a synthetic drug that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

There is not official cause of death, McLennan said, adding that Health Canada now has a sample of the cocaine Novo used that night. Drug dealers lacing illegal narcotics with fentanyl is such a regular occurrence in Canada that police across the country have been issuing warnings on the dangers of purchasing these substances.

“If it’s that prevalent in all street drugs, not just in opiates, then people should know that,” said McLennan.

Toronto Public Health says there has been a dramatic rise in overdose deaths in the city.

Opioids, alone or in combination with other drugs, accounted for 66 per cent of all accidental deaths in 2015.

Between 2014 & 2015, fentanyl deaths almost doubled, from 22 to 42 instances.

The city is putting a plan in place to combat what it calls an urgent public health crisis across Canada. The Toronto Overdose Action Plan touches on how the city can prevent these deaths. The report also proposes the implementation of drug-checking programs in Toronto, “to allow people to test illicit drugs for the presence of toxic contaminants.”

The testing services, which according to the city have been available in Europe for the last 25 years, would give users the opportunity determine the drug contents without any repercussions.

“In an unregulated illicit drug market the potency and the composition of drugs are unknown,” the report reads. “Many illicit drugs contain substances other than what they are marketed as and may also contain harmful contaminants or adulterants.”

McLennan wants officials at the municipal, provincial and federal levels to all work together to raise awareness on the added dangers associated with purchasing drugs. She hopes that by sharing her story, people will be more open to discussions and alert to what they’re consuming.

“Everybody feels shy around these sorts of topics and doesn’t want to involve themselves with admitting to any recreational drug use,” explains McLennan. “It doesn’t make these people bad people, and somebody needs to stand up.”