A community drug forum to raise awareness around fentanyl and the impact of illicit-drug overdoses drew approximately 60 people to White Rock’s Peace Arch Elementary school last week.
The Feb. 23 event featured a panel of speakers, including Const. John Hartnett of the Clandestine Laboratories Unit Federal Serious & Organized Crime, and Mark and Barbara Bodie, Burnaby parents whose 17-year-old son, Jack, died of a fentanyl overdose in August 2015.
White Rock RCMP Const. Chantal Sears – who came up with the idea for the forum after learning the Bodies’ story last summer – described the evening as “super impactful.”
“There was not a dry eye in the house,” Sears told Peace Arch News Wednesday.
“The Bodie (family) presented a very moving presentation on how fentanyl has forever changed their lives.”
Sears said Fraser Health illicit-drug-overdose death statistics (301 in 2016, with fentanyl detected in 57 per cent of those) were also shared with attendees.