Trevor Tablotney spent the one-year anniversary of his brother’s death sitting on a bench in a Richmond, B.C., park, talking to strangers.
Nearby, his mother stood next to a brightly-wrapped, purple sportscar — its trunk open, a pile of naloxone kits on display, along with drug education pamphlets.
Curtis Tablotney died of a toxic drug overdose on Dec. 14, 2022. His father found him alone in his apartment, his TV still turned on, Fortnite still loaded and playing on his PlayStation.
“This is what is killing people, is doing drugs alone in your house — it’s not letting people know when you are on the drugs and you don’t know what is in them,” Trevor told Global News.
“The main part of the conversation we should be having right now is how to do drugs safely, and let people know (you’re doing them).
The bench, the car and the colour purple are all a part of the Tabloney family’s mission to raise awareness about the drug crisis in Curtis’ name.
Trevor spent Thursday inviting anyone who came by for a conversation about drugs. The bench was just a few blocks from where his brother worked.
The car belonged to Curtis, but fell into disrepair as he fell into his addiction, his mother Debbie explained.
After he died, the family decided to restore it, have it wrapped in purple with his name on it, and use it as a tool to educate the public.
“More awareness, more conversations, more understanding of what addiction is and how to help, and also how to reverse a toxic overdose,” Debbie said.
“I have seen other people that are going through this at our grief support groups and it’s just so sad, and we don’t want anyone else to have to go through the hurt and pain we have gone through, because it’s immense pain and it will be for the rest of our lives.”
The Mitsubishi GT3000 is eye-catching. The same model was featured in the Fast and Furious franchise, and is clearly attractive to young people the family speaks with, Debbie said.
“We’re calling it Curtis’ dream car,” she said.
Trevor has pledged to take anyone out for a ride who wants one.
He said it’s a part of having conversations about drugs that need to happen, to break the stigma he believes helped kill his brother.
“The reluctance to seek treatment was always there because of his fear of the social stigma of using drugs,” he said.
“He was always afraid of how people would see him as a drug user and that would prevent him from going to see doctors, it would prevent him from going to treatment.”
Trevor believes that if his brother had let someone know he was using drugs the night he was alone, his life might have been saved.
He urged anyone who does choose to use drugs not to do it alone, or to make sure they’re equipping themselves with a tool like the Life Guard app, that can send an alert if a drug user passes out.
According to the latest statistics from the BC Coroners Service, there were more than 200 drug deaths in November alone.
“There’s more we have to do,” Premier David Eby said Thursday.
“We have a billion dollars in the budget to expand our recovery system and a new approach in communicating with the public about the toxic drug crisis. We’re going to keep working at it.”
Trevor said he doesn’t doubt politicians on all sides of the legislature are sincere in their intent to solve the crisis.
But he said politics have gotten in the way, and there’s not enough willingness to work together on solutions like safe supply.
“People do drugs. That’s the main thing that we as a society need to come to terms with here: people are doing drugs and we have to get over that moralistic position on it,” he said.
“Stop playing with people’s lives here.”
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