A dad from the Grunthal area is sharing the story of his daughter's death by drug overdose in the hope it can prevent this tragedy from happening to other families. Rob Warkentin says his daughter, Ashton Cook, died March 1st in Winnipeg, less than a year after her mother also died of an overdose. He says his daughter was a wonderful person who made some bad choices.

"She actually lived in Steinbach here about three or four years ago and attended Southland Church. She even went through the School of Ministers and graduated from that and seemed to be doing quite well after a negative life prior to that. Then, about a year ago, her mom passed away from a drug overdose and, from that point, she became very depressed. I think she took a turn for the worse, got involved with the wrong people and, from my understanding, she overdosed on Oxycontin and Fentanyl."

Warkentin says it has been very difficult coming to grips with the death of his daughter but he wants to see some good come out of the pain that he is enduring. One of the lessons he wants to pass along is to stay proactive in your child's life. Warkentin says Ashton had a lot of joy whenever she was among nurturing people.

"The minute she pulled away from that and didn't have the hands on love and care that we need when we're hurting, she made bad decisions and bad became worse until it cost her life. My encouragement is that, as family units, if we have someone struggling, that we don't let them sit in a corner by themselves out of our own pride or our hard hearts, that we soften our hearts and we insist that we draw near and we make time for one another rather than avoiding each other through hardships."

Warkentin would also like restrictions placed on opioid-based prescription drugs like Oxycontin which are prescribed for pain management.

"I've seen prescription bottles with my daughter's name on it in the amount of 120 Oxycontin at one prescription. For one, you're giving somebody that's stressed and depressed, a loaded gun. I think for young people, 120 is ridiculous. Give them ten and say, see you in a week. This giving out 100+ at a time is absolutely unacceptable, it's killing our young generations."

Warkentin says it's crucial to know where your kids are at, especially when it comes to pharmaceuticals. He adds parents and doctors need to monitor what's being prescribed and why.

"People are learning how to farm the pharmaceuticals. People are learning how to know what to say, how to get what they want. It's too easy. There needs to tougher laws in place. They need to address this before we have more young obituaries than old obituaries."