Kitchener couple push back against stigma after son dies of overdose

Although the public campaign for International Overdose Awareness Day is a one day event, for people living through the results of a drug overdose, the impact lasts much longer.

Nick Fraser feels it all the time. His son Sean died of an overdose at the age of 19.

"Every every waking minute something can pop into your mind surrounding an overdose," said Fraser.

Local overdose awareness day events were held in both Cambridge and Kitchener in August advocating "support — not stigma."

The events bring together friends and families of people using substances and provide demonstrations to prevent overdoses, including recognizing the signs and symptoms of an overdose as well as learning how to administer naloxone.

Fraser said it's important for people to have an understanding of the suffering people affected by an overdose have gone through. 

And if they don't understand, he said, "It doesn't warrant negative attitudes and hostility toward an otherwise terrible situation."

"We as a collective group need to fully be there to support each other to not be tolerant of hateful messaging," he told CBC.

Sean's 'last choice'

Fraser spoke to a crowd at the Kitchener event on Monday and told the story of his son Sean, who died of an MDMA overdose.

"He had never done it before and he fell into the range of, 'My friends are having this amount [so] I'm going to do this amount.' And that ended up being his last choice," said Fraser.

"When everything started going wrong, all but one of his friends had left, and then [they] eventually called 911."

Fraser wants to stress that public conversation and education are important, especially surrounding Ontario's Good Samaritan Act, which does not hold someone responsible for drug possession if they have to call 911 in the event of an overdose.