In Dallas, 'a call to arms' to prevent fentanyl overdoses
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Kathy Travis of Flower Mound lost her 25-year-old daughter Jessica Duke last year to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
"It was the worst day of my life. No parent should ever lose a child but to find her, it was just terrible."
Travis said her daughter went through rehab 11 times in six years, and thought she was making progress.
But Travis said that self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic proved too much for her daughter.
"She was getting depressed all over again, going through the whole cycle of mental health depression and she bought the wrong drug because two days before we were talking about goals for her future."
Travis' daughter is one of 1,600 Texans and 71,000 people nationally who lost their lives to fentanyl last year. The powerful synthetic opioid is a leading killer of adults between 18 and 45.
Now Travis, along with two other mothers who lost their adult children to fentanyl, spoke during a roundtable Monday afternoon in Dallas.
Chance Nash, an 18-year-old who is recovering from an addiction to marijuana and fentanyl, also shared his story.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn organized the roundtable at the Children's Health Specialty Center to raise awareness about the issue.
He said the cartels smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. and he also blamed what he called President Joe Biden's open-border policies that allow it.
Lance Sumpter, Director of the Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, known as HIDTA, told the panel that last year alone, his organization seized 200 million doses of fentanyl in his coverage area, which includes the northern part of Texas and all of Oklahoma.
Michael Igo, Assistant Chief of Tactical & Special Operations at the Dallas Police Department added that since 2019, officers in the city have seized 15,000 grams of fentanyl, including 3,700 grams so far this year.
Dr. David Atkinson, Medical Director of the Teen Recovery Program at Children's Health, said many teenagers don't realize they're taking pills laced with fentanyl.
He said some adolescents have not been identified as having an opioid addiction because they died of overdoses after the first few times of using fentanyl.
Alicia Peoples, Director of Development at the Recovery Resource Council, a non-profit organization in North Texas that helps people overcome drug use and other disorders, told CBS11 that fentanyl overdoses have become such a serious problem that they began an overdose response team last year.
"We partner with first responders to go to a home where an overdose has happened and offer peer support and every kind of resource we can. Narcan is provided. The goal is to save a life."
The organization said during the first ten months of the program in Tarrant County, they have responded to 732 overdoses and that 386 people survived, a 53% success rate.
Citing the number of deadly fentanyl overdoses, Senator Cornyn asked, "Why haven't we declared war on these drugs that have taken innocent lives? I think this is a call-to-arms."
During a news conference after the panel discussion, Cornyn expanded on his thought.
"I think it should be something that's a consensus position, just as the war on terror after 9/11. You can't run, you can't hide. You have to confront it head-on and that starts at the White House and ends in every living room, every school room in our state."
Kathy Travis said she agreed with Cornyn.
"Until the local, state, and United States governments declares it, we're not going to be able to stop this. We have to quit hiding behind a brick wall per se and pretending that it's not happening to us and our children because it is."
