Category: Personal Stories

Local activist appears at Raleigh anti-fentanyl event

Jan. 23—RALEIGH — A number of activists from across the country met in Raleigh on Saturday for an event meant to raise awareness of fentanyl, including Oxford’s Patricia Drewes.

“Children are going to experiment [with drugs], but they should not have to pay for that experiment with their lives,” Drewes said. “And that’s what is happening. That’s what is happening in this country … Our children are being murdered, and poisoned in broad open daylight on American soil. And something has to be done.

Read the full article on the Henderson Dispatch web site (subscription required) or on Yahoo News.

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Triangle families ask for more to protect lives from Fentanyl

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Mitchico Duff described her daughter as kind and loving. Two years ago, Duff said she tragically lost her daughter, 22-year-old Machiko La’deja Duff, from fentanyl.

“I don’t want another mom to feel the way I feel, this is a nightmare, this is torture…” said Duff while attending a fentanyl awareness event Saturday near Downtown Raleigh.

“It took us a year to really find out what happened,” the Johnston County mother added. “We knew it was drugs involved but we didn’t know to the extent of what.”

Read the full story on the WNCN CBS17 web site.

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Widow and mother of late MLB pitcher Tyler Skaggs speak out against fentanyl

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.

Read the full article on the Good Morning America web site.

Anti-fentanyl groups with local ties rally in Washington

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.

Read the full article on the Henderson Dispatch web site (subscription required) or on Yahoo News.

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House GOP shines light on fentanyl
crisis

From the Sept 15 edition of the Washington Times

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.

Read the full article on the Washington Times web site.

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Washington Post Lost Voices of Fentanyl Rally Coverage

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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