This father felt ‘helpless’ as his daughter succumbed to opioids. She died aged 14 – CBC

Toxic drugs were leading cause of death among B.C. youth from 2017 to 2022

Oct 24, 2023

Greg Sword remembers how his daughter Kamilah used to love coming to play in Lions Park when she was a little girl growing up in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

“You got the river just down from here where we could go swimming … [we’d] bring her bike here, she would just ride around and be so full of life,” Sword told The Current.

But as Kamilah got older and went to high school, she began to experiment with drugs to cope with anxiety and pressure she felt about not fitting in with her peers. Like many teenagers, she started with marijuana, but moved on to prescription drugs like Xanax and dangerous opioids like fentanyl.

The park where she once played with her dad became the place she would buy and use those drugs.

“I had to drag my daughter out of this park a few times, and every time she was just obliterated,” Sword said. “And it’s just a horrible place for me to be.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/bc-teen-youth-opioid-deaths-1.7005240