Deadly drug just 'a click away,' warns grieving Ontario family

Aidan Tate died by himself, but not alone.

His family was upstairs, asleep. Earlier that night, they had enjoyed a meal together. Then the 19-year-old went down to his basement bedroom to play his guitar. His father, Phil, popped in to say goodnight and bring his son something to drink.

"We had people calling us thinking he had died on the street or something. That's not how it happened," said Phil Tate. "We have our street problems here in Peterborough, for sure, but the addiction is in the suburbs."

Aidan Tate fell victim to a suspected drug overdose in early March. The tragedy is so raw and recent that toxicology results are still pending. But authorities believe they know at least part of the answer — a benzodiazepine he purchased off the Internet. 

Bromazolam was never approved for medical use, anywhere in the world. Yet the powerful sedative is being sold and shipped openly in Canada. Used by dealers to enhance other street drugs, it often proves fatal when mixed with opioids, because it both depresses the respiratory system and counters the effects of antidotes like naloxone. 

Phil Tate was all too aware that his son was battling a dependency on benzodiazepines — medicine he was first prescribed as a young teen to treat anxiety and panic attacks. Aidan had sought help, but was booted from an outpatient program after he admitted to buying drugs on the street.

Phil and his ex-wife, Sarah Budd, had done their best to help him as he struggled through withdrawal, relapse and experimentation with other substances. 

What they couldn't protect him from was easy online access to the benzos he craved.

"It's a click away," said Tate. "Whatever you want … and you can get it sent from anywhere."

Benzodiazepine-laced opioids — or "benzodope," as they are commonly called — have washed across Canada like a wave, with users embracing both the deepened high and heightened risk. 

In Ontario last year, benzodiazepines were detected in the blood samples of almost half of all overdose fatalities — helping kill 1,170 people. In B.C., where the wave began, the figure decreased from a similar 2021 peak to closer to 28 per cent — still another 643 deaths.

But no part of the country has been immune. Public Health warnings about Bromazolam and other benzos in the drug supply have been issued in New Brunswick; Sudbury, Ont.; Brandon, Man.; the Northwest Territories; across Alberta; and B.C.

In March, Peterborough, Ont., followed suit in the wake of several Bromazolam-linked deaths, including Aidan Tate's.