A mother whose son died of a drug overdose in downtown St. John’s on Saturday says enough is enough.
The body of 20-year-old Benjamin Olivero was found next to a bench near the St. John’s Convention Centre around five o’clock in the afternoon.
His mother, Tina Olivero, has been told that he died after ingesting cocaine laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Ben Olivero
It’s the 10th known death linked to the deadly combination in the metro region in just the past month.
In an interview on Sunday, Olivero said as hard as her son’s death has been, it doesn’t compare to the pain he was in.
“Ben had been hurting for so long and suffering for so long that I just don’t want to see him in pain any more. He’s better now than he was (on Saturday),” says Olivero.
Olivero says the desperation and dangers of addiction are real and rampant throughout the community.
“It’s like breathing. I mean, if you can’t breathe, if you can’t get your last breath, you would do anything to get it. You would steal, you would chase after it all day long, you would do whatever you could to sustain that and that is addiction for people in addiction,” she said.
“We who are not in addiction have no idea of the magnitude. And I know that because if Ben had a choice, he would’ve chosen differently a long time ago. He’s been through hell—absolute hell.”
Olivero is seeking support to establish a parents’ coalition as one united front to lobby the powers-that-be for more resources to battle the scourge of addiction.
