Drug overdoses are killing too many innocent people. Now that the extremely potent synthetic drug fentanyl is being cut into other drugs, people are overdosing even when they’re not trying to take too much of the controlled substance. Only a little bit of fentanyl can kill a person and cause their heart to stop and their breathing to slow down to next to nothing.
A sixteen-year-old girl named Gwynevere Staddon was found dead in a Starbucks bathroom of a suspected drug overdose. The teenage girl was found unresponsive by a Starbucks employee at the Port Moody location, according to a report published by Global News. The Port Moody police claimed that the teenager was unable to be revived by medics who showed up at the scene as soon as they could.
During the rescue attempt, the emergency first responders found evidence that Staddon was abusing narcotics. She had a small number of drugs in her possession, as well as paraphernalia to help her get high.
The news of the teen’s sudden and tragic death has hit the local community very hard. Her mother, Veronica, believes that her daughter overdosed on fentanyl. She “completely suspects” that the synthetic drug was responsible for killing her child.
“My best friend, my daughter, my sweetheart baby … I will never stop missing you,” the mother wrote on Facebook. “My heart won’t stop breaking.”
Veronica knew that her daughter was a recovering addict. She had struggled with substance abuse for some time despite only being a young teenager. However, she had revealed to her mother that she had stopped using drugs for at least three weeks prior to her death.
“I’ve quit, so I’m OK now, Mom,” Veronica recalled Gwynevere saying. “It was calling out her name, and so she thought, ‘One more time.’ The one more time was the very last time.”
Veronica wanted to put her daughter into a rehab facility. However, there simply were no options available to her. Public clinics have a very long wait list and were not able to get Staddon into the facility before she died from a suspected overdose. The private facility was simply too expensive for Veronica and was out of her price range.
“If I don’t have $50,000 available, then they are not something I can use as a resource,” she told CBC. “The whole world is missing out on a born entertainer. Either that or a future politician.”
Veronica wants law enforcement to do a better job of keeping drug dealers off the streets. She also believes that rehabilitation programs need to be more widespread. Perhaps, President Biden can get Congress to invest in rehab facilities to help combat the opioid crisis that continues to ravage America to this day.
It is tragic that Gwynevere Staddon died at such a young age. Her mother is hoping that her story will help to raise awareness of the dangers posed by fentanyl and increase access to rehabilitation centers for those suffering from addiction. We need to work together as a society to make sure tragedies like this won’t happen again.
By investing in rehabilitation resources, making sure treatment is widely available, and clamping down on drug dealers- we can make a difference in the fight against opioid addiction. We must honor the memory of Gwynevere Staddon by doing what we can to help those struggling with addiction.