Grieving Victoria father makes Facebook plea to drug dealers

“Stop.”

That was Fred Lang’s open message to drug dealers, posted on Facebook days after his stepdaughter Debbie Porter was found dead of a suspected drug overdose.

“Our purpose was to try see if we couldn’t save a life or help someone,” said Lang.

“She hated what she was doing. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t stop.”

Porter, 49, was found dead in her Langford home on December 23. The B.C. Coroners Service says it is one of eight deaths that appear to be linked to overdoses around Greater Victoria in the last week.

READ MORE: Drugs suspected in eight Greater Victoria deaths

“There’s certainly something going on with the drug community in Greater Victoria, whether it’s the function of the drugs or the dealers or the users or whatever,” chief Coroner Barb McLintock said earlier this week, but cautioned that toxicology reports haven’t been completed yet.

But Lang says she was an addict for thirty years, prompting his Facebook message after her death.

“My wife and I call upon your compassion, sympathy and understanding and ask that you cease selling street drugs,” he wrote, “in order that other families are not subjected to the grief we continue to experience.”

There are renewed calls for a safe injection site in Victoria after the rash of deaths, and experts say a supervised injection site would provide harm reduction, while giving drug users the connections they need to beat their addictions.

“It’s clearly now, if not 10 years ago, is the time to have safe places for people,” said Bruce Wallace, an assistant professor with the University of Victoria’s School of Social Work.

A call that comes too late for Porter.

“When the phone call that we got the other day, that was the phone call we were wishing we didn’t have to deal with,” said Lang.

“I never realized how much I loved her until this happened. I couldn’t stop crying.”

– With files from The Canadian Press