Winnipeg dad gives heartbreaking warning after son’s overdose from laced drugs – Winnipeg | Globalnews.ca

Winnipeg dad Joseph Fourre is sharing a heartbreaking warning to parents after his son Harlan overdosed on laced drugs in The Pas, Man. on Saturday.

Joseph told Global News Harlan, 31, was out with his friends in The Pas when he and his friends were found unresponsive in the bathroom of an establishment.

Police say, they had ingested drugs, possibly ecstasy, believed to be laced with an opioid.

Harlan’s friends were revived by officers and EMS who administered Narcan and taken to the hospital where they were treated and released.

Unfortunately, Joseph said Harlan was not as lucky because the Narcan wasn’t effective..

“So the paramedics worked on him for about 45 minutes to regain a heartbeat and got him stabilized at the hospital where he was intubated and then transported to Brandon, where he’s still in critical condition.”

Joseph said the doctor informed him on Sunday that half an hour for the brain to not receive oxygen is a long time and his life currently hangs in the balance.

“And we still don’t know how long he was laying on the floor for. So, yeah, that’s not good.”

The prognosis currently does not look good but he is waiting on the outcome of an MRI Monday.

Joseph said it’s hard to fathom that this could happen to his son as Harlan is not a chronic drug user.

“Goes into the fact that we have an epidemic out there, where people are playing with recreational drugs, and creating deadly concoctions,”

“Harlan is a hard-working young man who had everything going for him, he loved his Winnipeg jets and we were looking forward to the Jets winning the cup this year. He certainly didn’t deserve this and as a community, we need to get a little harder on the drug dealers out there that are are are killing our kids because of greed. They want more money.”

Joseph said he wants tougher sentencing for people that are dealing and he would like to see the province go in a direction of mandatory treatment plans for people who are suffering from addiction and not able to make decisions for themselves.

He said he is not in support of safe consumption sites due to his own personal experience in one.

“A safe consumption site wouldn’t have helped my son because my son doesn’t fit the demographics that would require the use of a safe consumption site. I’m in recovery and back in another city, it was at a safe consumption site where I was introduced to heroin because it was readily available, made around the site.”

Joseph said he is not taking his son off the hook entirely as he acknowledges that he made a choice to do something that night but he didn’t choose to get a lethal drug.

“Just to put it in an analogy, If you’re going to give somebody an aspirin or if they ask for an aspirin and you give them an aspirin. It better be an aspirin. For the young ones that are going out there partying, thinking about having a good time, be careful. because sometimes aspirins just aren’t aspirins.”

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