Grieving mothers highlight devastating impact of opioid crisis in Vancouver
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2019 23:24:10 +0000
More than 50 grieving mothers who lost children to the opioid epidemic staged an emotional photo shoot in Vancouver Saturday to call attention to the crisis and mourn their children.
Dressed in black, the members of the Moms Stop the Harm advocacy group stood in a circle with other members of the public who have lost loved ones to an overdose on Jericho Beach. Some carried crosses, while others held photos of those who have died. A drumming and healing song began the sombre ceremony.
Sharene Shuster, who lost her 25-year-old son Jordan Carhoun last August from a fentanyl overdose, organized Saturday’s gathering. She said there were a lot of tears as people came together with their photos.
Sharon Shuster, the event organizer, lost her son Jordan Hunter Carhoun to fentanyl poisoning on Aug, 9 2018.
Jordan was born deaf and had a cochlear implant. He went to the Vancouver Oral Centre for Deaf Children until Grade 3 and then he went to West Point Grey Academy.
In high school, kids would make fun of the way he talked, Shuster said. After high school he started experimenting with drugs, and one of his friends introduced him to heroin.
He told his mother about the heroin after about four months and went to rehab.
Shuster said her son wanted to get off the drugs and he did. But then he suffered trauma when two people he was close to in his rehab died, and he had a relapse.
“He used a different dealer. Jordan thought he was buying heroin but he was sold pure fentanyl. He didn’t have a chance.”
Moms Stop the Harm is a national network of families who have lost relatives to drug overdoses. The group is calling for an end to the war on drugs and to treat those who use drugs with compassion and respect.
Shuster said the group has given her so much support as she grieves for her son.
“Most people who are taking these drugs are not going out to party. They are suffering from a trauma or something has happened like a sport injury and they became addicted.”
The photo shoot was inspired by a similar photo taken in Kelowna, in which members of the Okanagan-based chapter of the MSTH gathered to have their photo taken while holding white crosses.
The Kelowna photo has been used in public bus ads in Kelowna and Penticton to raise awareness of the drug epidemic, fight stigma and to push for drug decriminalization.
Shuster said they are also hoping that their photos from Saturday will also become ads on busses.
She is also organizing a team called Drug Epidemic Awareness Moms Stop the Harm to run in the Vancouver Sun Run in April.
Jasmine Wilson lost her boyfriend of seven years Jordan Hunter Carhoun to fentanyl poisoning on Aug, 9 2018.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
-With files from Postmedia.