But in a tragedy that repeats more often in Australia than road deaths, the blond 26-year-old died of a drug overdose in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The word 'drug' is where many people lose compassion, believing overdose is simply over-indulgence gone wrong.

To mark International Overdose Awareness Day on Monday, Aaron's deeply grieving family invited The Age into their home  to dispel this myth.

They want to share why their "gentle, kind and brave" son turned to drugs, and express their frustrations at a health system they believe let him down.

For underneath the smiles and sweet words to his girlfriend Kayla Caccaviello, Aaron was in a world of torment brought on by a childhood trauma.

"He was just purely for the moment wanting to take the pain away," his mother, Cherie Short, said. "He wasn't having fun."

After an accident when he was 18, Aaron was prescribed opioid pain medication oxycontin with no warning about addiction. He soon discovered it numbed his depression.

Soon afterwards, Aaron turned to heroin, the drug that took his life while he slept in his Hoppers Crossing family home.

The Shorts spent the intervening years trying to get him help in both the mental health and drug and alcohol treatment sectors.

"The system doesn't work and hasn't worked for our son, who had the family support," Ms Short said.

"There are so many gaps. It just could have been so different, but he's been robbed."

Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association chief executive Sam Biondo​ said it was a "common story" and the family's anger was justified.

In Victoria, the number of fatal overdoses rose last year from 367 in 2012 to 384, compared to 249 road deaths.

"That's the size of a jumbo jet," Mr Biondo said. "It's a very significant issue which government turns a blind eye to.

"We know we have been able to reduce the road toll because there has been state and nation[al] programs that are well funded and well supported, but we haven't seen the same application and rigour to deal with drug deaths."

Of Victorian overdose deaths in 2014, 135 involved heroin and a whopping 314 prescribed pharmaceuticals.

Meanwhile, fatal overdose involving ice has increased from 36 to 52 in the same years.

Mr Biondo said a wider distribution of drug naloxone, which reversed the effects of opiates, and a "real time prescription monitoring system" to make sure patients weren't over-prescribed medication would help save lives.

Ms Caccaviello, who is clean after a battle with pain medication prescribed since age 13 for migraines, said Aaron "desperately" wanted to stop using drugs, and did for some time, but his underlying issues were never probably treated.

"Addiction with people like us is not just because we want to, it's because we are hurting," she said.

Aaron's father, Colin Short,   said he believed the majority of people addicted to drugs had mental health problems but, unfortunately, other families would go through the same pain.

"It's preventable and it doesn't need to be this way if governments started caring about it and started putting some money towards treatment," he said.

Sobbing and gently stroking a photo of Aaron, Ms Short said her son should be here.

"My son doesn't have to be a piece of paper in my hand," she said.