Family and friends gather to remember loved ones who died of overdose

published on April 23, 2019 by Cindy E. Harnett in Times Colonist

Janice Walker tried to hold back tears Tuesday as she lit a candle for her son who died of a drug overdose.

Walker, 47, lost her middle child, Joe, on Dec. 11, 2016. He was 25. He experimented with drugs at age 14 and became a high-functioning addict until an opioid prescription for dental surgery spurred his decline. He couldn’t live with the pain of addiction. He was in recovery the year he died, then relapsed.

Walker said her son researched what he was doing to his brain and body.

“It broke his heart and terrified him, but then, like a flick of the switch, that urge to use became greater than all reason, all logic, all sense and he’d be gone again.”…