Julian Brumec-Parsons said it hit him “like a truck” when he learned his cousins, Amelia and Hardy Leighton, had suddenly died of a fentanyl-involved overdose.
“They were a family that was raised in Whistler, living in North Vancouver, and definitely not drug addicts,” he says.
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The young couple died 11 months ago, and in the time since, awareness of the dangers of fentanyl has surged.
But so too have overdose deaths – 300 in British Columbia this year, the majority of which have involved fentanyl.
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In April, the significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths in B.C. prompted Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall to declare a public health emergency, which was the first time the PHO has served notice under the Public Health Act to exercise emergency powers.
“Fentanyl does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter what age you are, what drug you’re taking, what setting you’re in, what gender you are. It can kill you,” says Brumec-Parsons.
The Leightons left behind a two-year-old. Brumec-Parsons is aware the day is coming where he’ll have to tell a young child why he doesn’t have a mother and father.
“We have to be prepared to tell him the truth and do everything we can to make sure his accepts it,” he says.
– With files from Rumina Daya and Paula Baker