For the first time on camera, the widow of Tyler Skaggs and his mother are sharing their story of loss after the 2019 death of the Los Angeles Angels pitcher. Skaggs was just 27 years old when he was found dead in his hotel room after taking fentanyl-laced oxycodone on the road with his team.
Over three years after Tyler Skaggs’ death, his wife, Carli Skaggs, and mother, Debbie Hetman, spoke to ABC News about what justice looks like to their family.
Sep. 21—WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patricia Drewes joined anti-fentanyl advocates from across the country Saturday to demand greater effort from the federal government in addressing the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
Drewes co-founded Forgotten Victims of Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren Counties, which last month held a similar rally in Raleigh.
‘It was a poisoning’: Parents say son died after taking just one pill
CNN’s Kate Bolduan profiles Ed and Mary Ternan, who run Song for Charlie, a non-profit dedicated to awareness of counterfeit prescription pills sold online.
House GOP shines light on fentanyl crisis, blames open border for mounting overdose deaths
House Republicans are shining a spotlight on the fentanyl crisis, which they said has been exacerbated by President Biden’s loose border policies.
At a Capitol conference, the conservative Republican Study Committee turned over the stage to parents whose children died of fentanyl overdoses and had come to Washington to share their stories and help lawmakers craft legislation to combat the epidemic.
Families devastated by fentanyl deaths rally near the White House
April Babcock and Virginia Krieger both lost children to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl and have pleaded with lawmakers and officials to ramp up enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop the flow of illicit drugs.
On Saturday, the mothers built a kind of wall.
Fifty banners stretched for about 400 feet, nearly spanning the width of the National Mall. They featured faces of nearly 3,500 people who lost their lives to fentanyl. Many were young, even teenagers. Some wore their high school jerseys or graduation caps. They smiled, forever frozen in time on the banners, which Babcock said represented the thousands of people who have died of opioid use.
Read the full article on the Washington Post web site (subscription may be required).
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A Lake Worth Beach mother lost her daughter, Jenny, to a fentanyl overdose in April 2020, and wants the public to understand just how deadly the drug is. Watch the story from WPTV News (FL Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast).
Republicans Host Parents of Fentanyl Victims: Our Children Didn’t Overdose; ‘They Were Poisoned’
Parents whose children died after unknowingly ingesting fentanyl joined House Republicans at a roundtable Thursday to tell their stories and implore Congress to act on the growing epidemic.
The parents’ resounding message at the roundtable, led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) and the Republican Study Committee, was that their children had been “poisoned” and that their deaths were not overdoses.
Faced with an uncontrollable number of drug overdose deaths, North Carolina leaders passed a bi-partisan law meant to hold drug dealers accountable, but a WCNC Charlotte investigation found police rarely arrested suspects for the newly created charge of death by distribution in the first two years of its existence.
The felony, when charged as “aggravated,” holds a sentence of up to 40 years in prison, but court records reveal few drug dealers across the state actually face the crime.
Izzy D’Alo is still waiting for justice a year after her father’s fatal overdose. James D’Alo died on Jan. 18, 2021, in Stallings, North Carolina — a southeastern suburb of Charlotte. The medical examiner ruled the 50-year-old’s death accidental and suspected fentanyl as the source.
“I had a feeling my dad was just going to be viewed as another drug addict and he wasn’t,” his daughter said. “Since he died, I’ve learned a lot about him and his struggles and what drove him to that path and it’s really sad.”
