Upon returning from the funeral service for his 26-year-old granddaughter, Samantha Louise Thomas, Ucluelet resident Mike Dickie earnestly wants to share this message with his community:
鈥淔or everybody taking drugs recreationally, be very careful. Not only does it affect the person that鈥檚 taking them, but it鈥檚 devastating for friends and family.鈥�
His granddaughter, who was working and going to school in Vancouver, passed away on Jan. 13, 2018 after overdosing on a fatal pill. A toxicology report would later confirm she had ingested a mixture of cocaine, morphine, and fentanyl.
鈥淎s far as I know, she was going to a party and somebody gave her a pill. She got into a taxi and died. She was visiting her mom,鈥� he said. 鈥淸Samantha] was so loved. She didn鈥檛 have an enemy in the world and she never said a bad thing about anybody. That鈥檚 all I can say. She was so loved.鈥�
Dickie remembers taking his granddaughter fishing in his rowboat and hanging out at local coffee shops when she came to visit the Coast. He said she loved Ucluelet and learned how to surf out here.
鈥淲e miss her so much,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he whole family is crying. There were 300 [First Nations] at the funeral in Surrey.鈥�
Dickie said it wasn鈥檛 until recently that Samantha started taking drugs.
鈥淚 think she got into some people that were doing it. I mean, she wasn鈥檛 an addict. She hated the stuff because of what it did to her mother.鈥�
Constable Jarett Duncan of the Ucluelet RCMP reiterates the fact that you could lose your life if you take recreational drugs.
鈥淎t the end of the day you have no idea what鈥檚 been put in that. You have no idea how its been made, you don鈥檛 know where it鈥檚 been made and ultimately there too many cases of people throughout B.C. and Canada wide who have been dying due to fentanyl. I think it鈥檚 very tragic and this is something that is preventable if people decide not to use these recreational drugs,鈥� said Duncan.
According to a news released published by the BC Coroners Service on Jan. 31, 2018, approximately 81 per cent of the suspected illicit drug deaths to date in 2017 had fentanyl detected, up from 67 per cent in 2016. In most cases, fentanyl was combined with other illicit drugs, most often cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines.
鈥淎s the coroners鈥� data show all too clearly, we are still in the midst of a persistent and continuing epidemic of unintentional poisoning deaths,鈥� said provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall in the news release.
In 2017, there were 1,422 suspected drug overdose deaths, according to the data gathered by the BC Coroners Service. This is a 43 per cent increase from the number of overdose deaths in 2016 (993). The number of illicit drug overdose deaths in 2017 equates to about 3.9 deaths per day for the year.
鈥淭hrough heroic and unprecedented actions, responders on the front lines are daily saving hundreds of lives. But hundreds more are still dying, most often alone and with no one nearby to act when things go wrong. We are going to need to think more broadly, and further out of our comfort zone, to end these tragic losses,鈥� said Dr. Perry Kendall.
Dickie hopes his message is heard loud and clear.
鈥淔or people taking this stuff, you鈥檙e dealing with Russian roulette. When they die, they affect so many people that love them,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll I鈥檓 talking about is we miss her so much. The whole family is crying.鈥�
RELATED ARTICLES
- (Peach Arch News, Dec. 11, 2017)
- (Victoria News, July 12, 2017)
- (Penticton Western News, July 28, 2017)
