Vancouver Fentanyl Crisis Drives Funeral Director To Take Action
As a funeral director, John Romeyn is obviously well-aquainted with death, but as he began seeing young overdose victims month after month, he felt the need to take action.
Romeyn says that is was a conversation with a bereaved father of one teenaged girl that moved him to initiate an awareness campaign about fentanyl’s deadly effects.
“His first comment to me was ‘I was supposed to pick out a dress for her to wear to her graduation. Now I have to figure out what she’s going to wear in her casket’,” Romeyn said.
Spurred into action, Romeyn helped develop a poster that depicts a funeral scene with a hard-hitting tagline: “Will fentanyl be the reason for your next family get-together?”
His company also developed a 45 minute presentation designed for ages 12 and older. It includes speakers from the B.C. Coroners Service, police victim services and the parent of a child who died from a fentanyl overdose.
Romeyn said he hopes to run the program in schools, at church youth groups and community centres to educate young people about the risks attached to fentanyl exposure, before they start experimenting with drugs.
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