NARRATOR: This program contains subject
matter and language that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Ryan is a very funny, very energetic individual.
He's a good guy.
Beautiful.
He's caring.
He's helpful.
Ryan is a very smart person.
Hey, look. It's done!
[LAUGHS]
He is a good mechanic.
He knows how to fix things.
He could have a happy life, instead
of this scrounging to get high.
I appreciate it.
I'm gonna go in the house.
My name is Ryan, and I'm 26 years old.
I am addicted to fentanyl.
Ryan will steal, pawn, everything.
Half my house has disappeared.
Ryan's addiction, it's affected everybody, the whole family.
We're all suffering from it.
I just wish I had the old Ryan back.
But the day Ryan was born, it was
love at first sight with Ryan.
He'd like to have fun.
He smiled a lot.
He laughed a lot.
He wanted to experience everything,
and it was good memories.
He's a good learner.
He just didn't like rules.
Ryan did have a tough run going through junior high.
He was being picked on.
And he would never back down, though.
In junior high school, Ryan was very anti-establishment.
He was a jokester.
He would be blamed for things that he had no involvement in.
They proceeded to say he had a lot of ADD issues.
So to make the long story short, we
had agreed that the best thing for Ryan at that point
would be home schooling.
I had a lot of misgivings.
My idea of him finishing school is in a school.
Sometimes, Karen was doing his homework.
We would argue about it all the time.
It did get to me quite a bit.
They'd be like screaming and yelling at each other.
Like, I just didn't want to even be in the house,
so I'd just go outside and do whatever
I could to get away from it.
In his teens, his biggest thrill was skateboards.
He'd eat, think, sleep skateboarding.
The first time I ever touched a skateboard,
I just fell in love with it.
There's like, no rules.
You could just kind of do whatever you wanted.
You could get anything at the skate park,
from crack cocaine to acid.
I was smoking a ton of weed.
That's pretty much like skateboarding life.
When Ryan was 16, everything changed drastically.
I went to go do my trick, and I probably jumped
from like five or six feet.
And when I landed, I just remember looking down
and it was like half a tennis ball in my sock.
He had shattered the whole ankle.
The doctor had started me off with a bunch of pain pills,
and everything went away.
You're just like, in agony, and this one little thing
can just make that stop.
It's kind of surreal.
Eventually, the pills didn't do anything for me,
and they had to upgrade me to the Oxys.
I love the feeling of those pills.
They'd just give me more and more and like,
I would always end up having to get a refill early.
The ankle injury had a lot of effects on Ryan.
I think he was down on himself,
and he just wanted to be left alone.
His dad decided he was gonna move out.
Just packed his Jeep up with his personal stuff
and just drove away.
He had no contact, didn't bother to phone
him, see how he's doing, nothing.
I think it made Ryan feel like his dad didn't care.
After my dad left, I actually had like a lot more free time.
My mom stopped paying attention to what
I was doing, like, completely, and it was free feeling.
At the same time, it's kind of a [BLEEP] feeling.
I went and bought like, cocaine, MDMA, anything so I could get
as high as much as I wanted.
It felt good to just be out and not have to deal
with any problems at home.
We were separated for a year, and Ryan's addiction came to
the forefront while I was gone.
I went to buy some Oxys.
They ended up being like fentanyl, I guess?
[TENSE MUSIC]
We went over there to try to help,
and the paramedics were there.
Ryan looked like a rag doll, and they
said he was not breathing.
They had brought him out of this overdose,
and when he got out of the hospital,
he went and overdosed again--
the same day.
BIANCA: Ryan.
[GROANING]
Me and Bianca--
I met her at a friend's house that I
used to party at every weekend.
Bianca-- her and Ryan are drug buddies.
She keeps showing up at the house.
Ryan and Bianca's relationship was
never a healthy relationship.
Bianca was quite a user.
RYAN: Yeah.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
They lock themselves in the bedroom.
They use their drugs.
Nothing I can do about it.
When was the last time you got high?
Like this morning.
This morning?
Yeah, every day.
How can I help you?
I don't need help.
I want to.
I don't need help.
Nobody can help me.
You guys ready to eat?
Like, I don't care anymore.
I really don't.
Ryan.
Yo, I didn't like, sign up to be like, put on trial.
Can you drive me home?
I'm done right now.
Where are you going?
Going home.
How come?
Can you get that [BLEEP] camera out of here,
man, like, I don't--
JOE: When Ryan gets upset, we all know that there's
no sense trying to stop him.
Let me talk to him.
Just let me talk to him.
We know that it'll escalate into a fight,
and that would be way worse.
Ryan gets very angry.
Can I talk to you?
RYAN: Get the [BLEEP] out of my room, honestly, right now.
Get the [BLEEP] out.
Karen has said in the past if he should die, I'd be sad
and I'd be heartbroken.
But it would be over.
It would be done.
I can't understand how--
how he could make his mom feel that way.
I used to sit up hours and watch him all night
and worry about him.
And now, it's no.
Oh, I've totally given up.
It's hard for me to watch Karen get taken advantage of,
but it's time to face reality.
This has been going on for years.
Where is he getting the money to be stoned?
So does that mean you can help me out, or you're not going to?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
If Ryan doesn't stop, he will die.
And I'm OK with that.
Well, how long has he been using?
Five years.
Five years?
Five years.
That I know of.
How long ago was your surgery?
Junior high.
KAREN: He was using pot in grade six.
Yeah.
And there was a skateboard accident?
KAREN: That's where it started.
MAUREEN BRINE: With prescribed drugs.
Yep.
And then once he couldn't get them anymore,
then he just went to the streets.
That's when the fentanyl use started coming in.
Yeah, that led him to this place where he is now?
Yep.
We ready?
We're good?
Let's go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
Hi.
Good morning, Ryan.
Hey, what's up?
Hi.
I'm Maureen. Come on in.
Cool.
You're amongst people who love you.
It brings me pain watching you destruct.
I am watching you die before my eyes, and it hurts so much.
I am pleading with you to take the help.
If you don't, I will have no choice
but to set boundaries with you.
I refuse to--
All right, can I ask you to put your phone away, Ryan?
Give me a second.
[TENDER MUSIC]
JOE: Ryan--
So I'd really appreciate it if you put it away.
Thank you, thank you.
To let this addiction take such control over you,
I've failed you.
Please accept this lifeline.
Should you decide not to accept, you will
no longer call our house home.
You will no longer be welcomed in our home.
I am so afraid that I will be the one
to find you overdosed and dead.
That is something that is driving
me further away from you.
Ryan, I urge you to please accept the help
that's being offered today.
Well, Ryan, it's my job to ask you if you're
willing to accept help.
I don't know.
I really I don't know.
It's time.
You're killing yourself.
Whatever.
[BLEEP] it.
I'm not going.
MAUREEN BRINE: Ryan--
You guys can all go [BLEEP] yourselves.
Ryan, slow down slow down.
Would you like to have a cigarette?
Oh, yeah.
It's hard.
All you need to do is just talk to your family
and come with us.
That's all, that's all.
Yep.
Let's do this.
Come on.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Ryan.
[QUIET MUSIC]
Like, how long am I supposed to go
to this [BLEEP] place for?
Three months, 90 days.
Well, it takes that long for the brain to reset itself, right?
Yeah.
That's why you've had so much trouble stopping.
I get that.
And when am I supposed to leave, like--
Today.
[BLEEP] it.
Let's go right now.
Let's just get up and leave.
So you're ready to go?
Yeah, whatever.
[BLEEP] it.
That's a good choice, Ryan.
You'll be Ryan again.
We all know you can do it.
MAUREEN BRINE: Ready?
Yes, let's do this.
Bye, everyone.
Love you, buddy.
I'm gonna miss you.
Yeah.
Too much.
Bye.
MAUREEN BRINE: Off to a new life.
RYAN: Yes.
Doing OK?
I'm all right, yeah.
Feeling less bad now?
Like, a little antsy, yeah.
Yeah, you were.
RYAN: Sorry.
It's good you're going to Vancouver.
Yeah, I've never been there.
It's gorgeous.
Be a good place to dry out.
Well, more than dry out.
Well, yeah, yeah.
Hey, man. - Hi there.
Nice to meet you. Jeremy.
- I'm Jordan. - How are you doing now?
All is good.
Doing the right thing, for sure.
[MUSIC PLAYING]