A bench with Joey Scrimgeour’s name on it sits along Goderich’s waterfront, a reminder of a life lost too young. “It’d be three years ago, last Sunday, September 13th, my world turned upside down. I walked into my youngest son’s room, Joey, and found him deceased,” said Joey’s father, Brent Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour was only 19. He died of an opioid overdose. Joey’s death sent his father into alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts. He’s on the other side of that struggle now eager to help parents avoid his family’s pain. “What I walked into that morning, I would not wish that on my worst enemy. I see all these young kids, and everything around and the future that they can have, and I know how it destroyed my family. I don’t want others to go through that, and I truly mean that,” said Brent. Scrimgeour has enlisted the help of Huron County native, and former RCMP undercover operative turned author, Garry Clement. Clement grew up in Hensall, and will be sharing his 34 years of policing experience, mostly fighting organized crime and the drug trade, with a crowd at South Huron District High School in Exeter today at 7:30 p.m. “What people have to realize, even a line of cocaine, if you buy it, you’re supporting organized crime. Organized crime is human trafficking. It’s drug dealing. It’s credit card fraud. It’s all of that. And that’s a society that we’re supporting if we purchase any sort of these drugs,” said Clement. He says many opioids are 10 times more potent than heroin, are killing thousands of Canadians, many of them young people each year. He doesn’t believe supervised drug consumption sites have worked, he has another idea. “I really believe there’s only one solution. Mandatory treatment. And then society says ‘yeah, but look at what it’s going to cost us.’ And I go, okay, then you have to do two years in the military, it’ll give you structure and everything. Think of what it is costing our health care system,” said Clement. Scrimgeour says he wants to see tougher sentences for drug dealers as well. One more tool, that might save a life. “My son Joey made one bad decision that cost him his life, and I really don’t want to see more youth taken away too soon,” said Scrimgeour. Clement’s direct talk about drugs will start at 7:30 p.m. tonight at South Huron District High School in Exeter.
