Kenneth Tomlinson, 34, says he thinks every 10 minutes about his daughter, Jordan, who died of an overdose in July 2023
She died of a fentanyl overdose at the age of 15, one of at least 1,706 Albertans who died of opioid poisoning last year. That works out, on average, to more than four deaths each and every day in 2023, the deadliest year on record for the province.Kenneth Tomlinson, 36, says he never thought he would bury his only daughter, let alone to a fentanyl overdose. Kenneth Tomlinson was at his Edmonton construction job last July when he received a call from the Stollery Children's Hospital.
"She had your back. Even if she felt you were in the wrong, she still wouldn't let her friends be attacked or talked down to. Just a friend that everyone needed." "The rest is history," Tomlinson said, his voice wavering. "She was admitted on July 7, and she took her last breath July 8 at 11 a.m." Due to the nature of his lifestyle, for the first eight or nine years of Jordan's life, Tomlinson was an absent father, in and out of jail.
But drugs were everywhere, even at Jordan's young age. She told Tomlinson she saw someone doing fentanyl in her school bathroom. "It's probably the key piece of legislation that protects youth to get treatment," said Dr. Monty Ghosh, an addictions specialist who practises in both Edmonton and Calgary.But it didn't work. Tomlinson said he felt as though the program might do more harm than good, given the way kids run through it.
The report went on to say that once youth left the safe houses, programs to help the teens with the next phase of treatment weren't easily accessible., and his successor, Terri Pelton, said in an interview a review has since been completed but has yet to be released.Hunter Baril, a spokesperson with the province's ministry of mental health and addiction, wrote in an email to CBC News that the PChAD program is actively being reviewed, and work to improve it is ongoing.
Terri Pelton was appointed Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate in 2022. She said the issues raised by her office in 2018 regarding the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs program remain today, and in fact may even be more significant. Ghosh, the addictions specialist, said opioid dependency programs are available to residents of any age, as is the virtual opioid dependency program .