Mother pleads for action on drugs
Son died of fentanyl overdose
Our family has had the hardest task ever — learning to live without Danny
PETRA SCHULZ
Clutching a framed photograph of her son, Petra Schulz made a passionate plea before nearly 100 people about the need for policy change on all levels to deal with the fentanyl epidemic in Alberta.
Schulz was one of six speakers Monday at the annual International Overdose Awareness Day on the steps of City Hall. Schulz’s 25-yearold son Danny Schulz died from an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2014.
While the provincial government has spearheaded a one-year pilot program to provide take-home naloxone kits to Albertans who are at high risk of opioid overdose, Schulz said the lifesaving kits need to be more widely available and should be available to people without a prescription, such as a parent who has a child with an addiction. Already there have been 600 emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses in Edmonton this year.
Edmonton should explore opening a supervised consumption site, such as Insite in Vancouver, Schulz said. The supervised drug injection site connects users to vital health care, counselling and addictions services.
“Our family has had the hardest task ever — learning to live without Danny,” Schulz said.
But instead of hiding what happened to him, the family has chosen to speak out to reverse the stigma around drug users. She is one of the founding members of Moms United and Mandated to Saving the lives of Drug Users, or mumsDU, which aims to rehumanize people who are addicted to drugs.
Honouring the lives of those who’ve died from drug overdoses and recognizing it as a preventable tragedy was the purpose of Monday’s event, said Mat Wong, Streetworks’ lead nurse for the overdose prevention program.
During a moment of silence, clusters of people lit candles and bowed their heads in the sunlight, remembering those who’ve died from drug overdoses.
“It’s unbearable, it’s hidden, it’s heartbreaking,” Wong said. “Every life is extremely valuable.” oellwand@edmontonjournal.com Twitter.com/Otiena