‘Toxic drug supply’ blamed for Island man’s death

VICTORIA A Courtenay couple whose 26-year-old son died after smoking fentanyl-laced heroin wants the coroner’s report on his death changed to say he was poisoned.

Ryan Hedican, an electrician, was on a construction site on April 24, 2017, in Vancouver when he smoked heroin during his lunch break, after more than eight months drug-free.

At the time, he was living with sober friends, had a “vision board” of short- and long-term goals in his room and individual meals in the fridge for the week.

“He didn’t get up that day intending to use drugs,” said his father, John Hedican. “He bought heroin or he was given heroin with fentanyl.”

The B.C. Coroners Service investigation report classified the death as accidental, caused by an unintentional illicit-drug overdose, said Hedican, who argues that the word “overdose” puts the blame on the user for making a bad choice.

“The user is deciding to do this, so it’s too bad for them,” said Hedican. “But it’s not — it’s a poisoning from a toxic drug supply provided by organized crime, the sole provider of toxic drugs to millions of Canadians.

“It’s not an overdose crisis. It’s a toxic-drug-supply crisis.”

In July, the coroners service changed the way it describes deaths such as Ryan’s, calling them illicit-drug toxicity deaths, as opposed to overdose deaths. Last year, 90 per cent of drug-toxicity deaths involved illicit fentanyl, up from five per cent in 2012, according to the service.

“The term overdose wasn’t precise or as accurate in describing it as an illicit-drug toxicity death,” said Andy Watson, spokesman for the service. “It can be stigmatizing to use the term ‘overdose,’ as it may imply that the user knows the amount they are consuming. But as we know with fentanyl … sometimes it’s not known about the toxicity of what is being taken and therefore is unintentional.

“We do know the drug supply is toxic.”

The Hedicans want their son’s death report changed to reflect the new terminology, but Watson said the family would have to apply to have the investigation of the death reopened based on new evidence. That’s rare, he said.

John Hedican believes hard drugs should be decriminalized and regulated. “The only thing that’s going to stop people from dying is a clean, regulated source for all people, like we do for alcohol and marijuana.”