By Jessica Lepp

A third Kamloops family loses loved one to fentanyl overdose

Feb 13, 2016 | 10:30 AM

KAMLOOPS — A third Kamloops family is speaking up after losing a loved one to a fentanyl overdose death.

22 year old Melisa Godin says her 24 year old cousin Ben Coan was found lifeless in his bedroom on January 26th after popping what he thought was an Oxycontin that he purchased off of a Kamloops drug dealer.

Godin says, “I was on his phone and I read that he had contacted a Kamloops dealer. He went to meet him around 10:00 o’clock to buy an Oxycontin to help him sleep. Other texts said he was having trouble sleeping and he wanted something to help him sleep through the night. He went and bought one and then he passed away.  He wasn’t someone to take it just because he wanted to take it. He wasn’t addicted to drugs. That wasn’t him at all. He was very family oriented.”

She says her family is devastated.

“He was turning his life around and he was doing really good. He came to live with us six years ago.”

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Godin says a coroners’ report determined that Ben ingested a fatal amount of fentanyl and says because of this, she wants to speak out to warn others.

“I feel like those people, drug dealers, are getting away with killing other people but they’re not physically doing, they’re making them do it themselves without them even knowing it.”

Three families have now spoken to CFJC News since the New Year, after losing loved ones to fentanyl overdoses.