A funeral home in Aldergrove decided they needed to do something after seeing so many heartbroken families lose loved ones to a drug overdose. The funeral directors have put together an awareness and prevention campaign that does aim to shock people about how deadly drugs are.

In an unusual move, the BC Coroner鈥檚 Office has come out against Alternative Funeral and Cremation Service鈥檚 awareness campaign, saying scare tactics don鈥檛 work, they only further stigmatize drug users.

While it鈥檚 true the D.A.R.E. program and Just Say No hasn鈥檛 been successful in deterring youth from trying hard drugs, it likely did impact a few kids here and there. And at this point in this fentanyl epidemic 鈥� reaching anyone is better than doing nothing. It isn鈥檛 costing taxpayers anything.

While B.C. Coroner Lisa LaPointe was quick to criticize a program she hasn鈥檛 even seen yet, we didn鈥檛 see where she offered an alternative for preventing youth from going down this deadly road. And isn鈥檛 an ounce of prevention worth a pound of a cure? Even if it only reaches an ounce of the teenage population?

No work by the health authorities or government has done anything to help stop this horrible crisis. More people are dying of drug overdoses today than ever before.

鈥淭he experiences and life situations of people who use drugs, as well as the physiological changes they experience, means they might not be ready or able to engage with the overdose prevention strategies,鈥� said LaPointe.

She said compassion and support are needed now. It鈥檚 a new approach both the Coroner and Fraser Health鈥檚 Chief Medical Officer have mentioned recently, moving away from treatment as a solution. There is no answer to this epidemic and no end in sight.

But at least Alternative鈥檚 is trying something.