Mom Who Lost 3 Sons Is Hopeful After Trump's Opioid Declaration

ROCKLAND (CBS) – The opioid epidemic claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people in Massachusetts last year.

On Thursday, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. The declaration shifts some federal money to help addicts.

A mother in Rockland who lost her three sons to drugs says she hopes it helps prevent other families from going through the same thing she did.

"I think that maybe I'm the only one, I think that there are a lot of people that have lost two," says Jean McCauley about the unfathomable distinction of losing all three of her sons to opioid overdoses.

"With my own children, I could see what path they were going down, but I never thought in a million years that I would lose three, not one but three sons," McCauley said.

In three years, her three sons were gone. She says she did everything she could to prevent it but she says it's going to take a huge effort nationwide to stop this epidemic.

"The only way it's going to get fixed is by all of us doing something about it," McCauley said.

In Wrentham, signs with "#2069" on them show how many people died last year in Massachusetts from overdoses.

On Saturday, a rally to raise awareness of the opioid crisis will be held on the Wrentham Town Common.