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Helen Jennens lost both of her sons to overdoses in the past six years. The Kelowna woman has now joined hundreds of parents across the country in sending the Prime Minister pictures of their lost loved ones.
Moms Stop the Harm is a national network of Canadian families who have lost their sons and daughters in the opioid overdose crisis that has left thousands dead.
On Nov. 13, an estimated 500 people in the group mailed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a letter with a picture of their dead loved one, along with the date and cause of their death.
Jennens hopes their “Somebody's Someone” campaign will highlight the people who have been impacted by the crisis for Trudeau.
“He's got to at least look like he's paying attention to this, and right now we just don't think his eyes are on the ball,” Jennens said.
In the first nine months of this year, 1,103 people died of overdoses in B.C., up from 607 in the first nine months of 2016.
Jennens says the long-term goal of Moms Stop the Harm is to have all drugs decriminalized.
“We just don't see that there's going to be an end to the deaths until we do that,” she said. “It's obviously policy change, it's obviously funding, we still don't have detox, we still don't have enough recovery centres or treatment centres, there's so many things that have to be done.”
Jennens lost her oldest son Rian in August 2011. In 2008, he was involved in a car crash and his leg was crushed. He was prescribed painkillers for the following three years due to chronic pain, and died of a “combined drug overdose.”
Her son Tyler died of a fentanyl overdose in January 2016, six years after he was prescribed oxycontin when he ruptured his achilles heel. He developed an opioid addiction, which escalated to heroin after his brother died in 2011.
On January 14, 2016, Tyler believed he was using heroin, but the drugs he used turned out to be 100 per cent fentanyl.
“I think Tyler was dead before he hit the floor,” Helen said back in 2016.
She says letters will continue to flood Trudeau's office.
“As long as our children die, the Prime Minister will get pictures of them,” Jennens said.
