Jeffrey Caplan
The drug fentanyl has quickly become known as a dangerous killer, and a father found that out the hardest way when his 21-year-old son was found dead on Christmas Eve of an apparent accidental overdose.
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Larry Hobson said his son didn’t smoke or do drugs, and that on the night of his death he was with friends and cousins, all of whom had no issues, making the facts surrounding his son’s death all the more mysterious and perplexing.
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“That’s my baby,” Hobson told CBC News. “He’s my heart and soul.”
The group got together for what was supposed to be a regular night of drinking. But then one of Hobson’s son’s friends apparently gave everyone a pill. It was believed to be Oxycontin. Hobson’s other son, Matthew, also took the pill.
However, only his other son got a pill that turned lethal.
Toxicology reports have not been released, yet the medical examiner told Hobson that while he could not speculate, such a dose of Oxycontin would not typically lead to death.
Hobson, while still coming to grips with the death of his own son, is already working to make sure other parents don’t lose children to fentanyl.
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“There’s nothing I can do about him being gone, but there’s something I can do for other kids and parents,” Hobson told CBC News. “My son’s death is so senseless, but I want it to have some meaning.
“All it takes is one bad choice to end someone’s young life and their future,” the distraught father added.
Hobson wants people who are putting fentanyl into other drugs to be tracked down and held accountable for the danger they are putting unsuspecting young people in and the harm they are causing the users and their families.
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He hopes to hunt down those who put fentanyl into the pill that apparently killed his son.
Hobson described his son as a “good kid” with a “good heart” and a “zest for life.”
His son was in his first year as an apprentice ironworker. His death coming at Christmas has made it even more difficult.
“I just went to go buy his Christmas stuff, he loved the Detroit Red Wings,” Hobson told CBC News. “I bought him a T-shirt and sweater […] I’ll keep those now forever.”
