A wealthy Vancouver family made a $20 million donation Monday to a new drug treatment model planned to open later this fall in B.C., in memory of their family member who died of a fentanyl overdose while waiting to see an addiction psychiatrist.
Jill Diamond, executive director of the Diamond Foundation, a philanthropic organization in Vancouver, said on June 12 that her 53-year-old brother, Steven Diamond, went through the B.C. system for help for a long-standing substance abuse problem. She said he experienced a “messy system of delays and disappointments.”
“Some people say the system is simply broken. But the truth is, the system we need doesn’t even exist,” said Diamond. Her brother, who she described as athletic, loving, and helpful, died in 2016. After spending three months on a waiting list, he died after a fentanyl overdose less than a week before he was scheduled to see an addiction psychiatrist….