“ F orever 16.” “Forever 23.” “Forever 28.”
T-shirts and posters memorialized the ages of fentanyl-poisoning victims in Williamson County Expo Center’s South Hall March 7, as families came to hear the latest news in this war on opioids.
At the event, Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason awarded $25,000 each to Texas Against Fentanyl and A Change For Cam, to be used toward fentanyl awareness and education.
Gleason said the money came from the proceeds of criminal asset forfeitures.
“I started thinking, ‘It’s these drug dealers that bring that poison into our community that would kill your family and your friends and your children.’ So, the best thing for me to do was to give that money back to the victims.”
A Change For Cam founder Becky Stewart told the audience her 19-year-old son Cameron died from a fentanyllaced pill that he thought was Valium, which he bought from someone on the social media site SnapChat.
Stewart advocates for greater awareness and more involvement from schools and government agencies.
“We have active-shooter training in school and DUI (driving under the influence) awareness, so why not fen- tanyl education?” Stewart asked.
Stewart also lobbies for government action.
“Why is there not a Covid-like response to this crisis?” she said. “Why are there not realtime trackers of death narrowed down to zip codes to show the urgency of taking any and every precaution?”
Texas Against Fentanyl founder Stefanie Turner has a similar story. Her 19-year-old son Tucker died from taking a fentanyl- laced counterfeit Percocet pill he bought from an acquaintance on Instagram.
“I went to the kids’ school district, and I went to the school board, and I asked for education,” Turner said. “They were not open to bringing in education.”
Turner used the podium to expressed her frustration with that sentiment.
“Do people not understand what’s going on here?” she said. “There’s a whole generation getting wiped out, and nobody’s saying anything. I could not be okay with that.”
Turner’s fight against fentanyl eventually took her to Sheriff Gleason’s office, where she found an ally.
“We were getting push-back at the education level,” Gleason said. “It’s been an uphill battle for us. Most people don’t want to be educated because it looks like you have a problem in your school.”
Together, Gleason and Turner approached Texas State Representative Terry Wilson with their concerns.
Wilson compared the number of United States fentanyl-related deaths to the Vietnam War.
“Lord knows, we’ve replaced dictators for less than this,” he said. “Our congress needs to do something. Freedom is protecting our citizens.”
Wilson has sponsored a new measure in the Texas Legislature, House Bill 3908, that will ensure students in 6th through 12th grades receive at least 10 hours per year of fentanyl prevention and drug poisoning awareness if passed.
Meanwhile, Texas Against Fentanyl has launched the Tucker Project, an initiative to create research-based educational materials for schools.
“It will be accredited curriculum brought in for all levels through 12th grade,” he said. “It will be donated to all public, private and charter schools. We’re working to try to change things. But it’s not happening fast enough. It can’t happen fast enough.”
