Bill calls for tougher penalties for opioid, fentanyl dealers

Additional coverage of this bill can be found on the following:

CBS17 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Dozens of families from across North Carolina and beyond were together in Raleigh on Saturday, remembering loved ones who died from fentanyl poisoning.

“Matthew was my first grandchild, my first grandson, and I always called him my uno because he was my number one,” one woman said to a group at the Family Summit on Illicit Fentanyl Fatalities in North Carolina.

Family members said the names of victims and their forever ages.

“Jesse’s forever age is 26,” one mom said of a son she lost to fentanyl poisoning.

Families were crying together, hugging each other and remembering loved ones.

Read the article and watch the news segment on the CBS17 web site.

WRAL TV5 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 40 families came together Saturday at the Public Safety and Justice Conference at NC State University.

Eight North Carolinians die each day from fentanyl poisoning, and over 13,376 died from fentanyl from 2013 to November 2022.

Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, lost her daughter 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning. Now she’s trying to connect others who’ve lost loved ones to fentanyl.

“Other people who lost a child to fentanyl, or loved one, they shouldn’t stand alone,” Walsh said. “I felt like we would all be stronger if we stood together.”

Read the article and watch the video on the WRAL Tv5 web site.