A Cole Harbour, N.S. mother is angry that she didn't know more about the drug led to the death of her 21-year-old son last December.

Trinelise Good's son, Ryan, died after taking a lethal combination of cocaine and the prescription drug Dilaudid on Dec. 10.

"I'm down stairs actually on eBay ordering Christmas gifts ... and I walk up the stairs and I come around the corner and [my husband] says 'Ryan is dead.' I'm like, 'What?' He's like 'Ryan is dead.' I noticed the police man behind him," she said.

A toxicology report found that Ryan Good, 21, had Dilaudid and cocaine in his blood when he died. (CBC)

Dilaudid is an opiate in the same class of narcotics as heroin.

Good later learned that it was his aunt that had shared her Dilaudid prescription with Ryan. His aunt found him unresponsive the next day on her couch.

A month after Ryan's death, Good called police, still looking for answers. She asked for the toxicology report and everything was confirmed.

"I asked [police], if Ryan had done just cocaine that night would he be dead? 'No,' was the answer. Dilaudid is what killed him," said Good.

Though illegal, sharing narcotics is extremely difficult to prosecute.

There are no national statistics on how many overdoses or deaths are the result of prescription drugs in Canada. But according to the International Narcotics Control Board, Canadians have become the second largest consumers of prescription narcotics and other controlled substances in the world.

Good says now all that's left of her son are photographs and a tattoo on her shoulder of her son's baby foot print. (CBC)

The board said drug overdoses have risen from this increased use.

Good said she had never heard of Dilaudid before.

She turned to the police for help but no charges were laid because they told her that her son was a consenting adult.

"I knew cocaine was out there. I knew the kids were doing it. Every second kid it seems is doing all these things and I thought I was aware, [but] I didn't know about Dilaudid," she said.

Good posted a letter on a website, warning other parents about the deadly drug combination she believes is responsible for her son's death.

The web page has been viewed thousands of times and has more than 50 comments.

Good said there has to be more awareness about the consequences of sharing prescription drugs. She said now all that's left of her son are photographs and a tattoo on her shoulder of her son's baby foot print.

"I came up with the saying, 'I will never walk alone,' to put above it Ryan will always be with me, he will always be in my heart," she said.