ORLANDO – Jaime Puerta said when he walked into his son’s room on April 1, 2020, he found what no parent should ever have to see — his child dead from an overdose.
Puerta, president of Stop the Void, was one of many parents at the DEA’s third annual Florida Family Summit on fentanyl in Orlando on Thursday. Their voices were a heartbreaking reminder that fentanyl continues to be the No. 1 drug threat in Florida and across the country.
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“My name is Gretchin Murray, and I lost my son, Gage Austin Taylor, almost two years ago to fentanyl poisoning,” Murray said.
“My name is Gia Cucarro and I was a different Gia Cucarro four years ago when I lost my daughter to fentanyl,” Cucarro said.
“My name is Andrea Lee and I lived in Jacksonville for five years and lost my daughter three-and-a-half years ago to fentanyl,” Lee said.
Also at the summit was a long row of pictures of those who have died. Each face had a mom or dad who attended the summit.
Tammy Plakstis said her son died after taking what he thought was cocaine. But according to the autopsy report, he had what amounted to a grain of salt of fentanyl in his body.
Murray said her son, Gage, was trying drugs for the first time when he died.
“He unfortunately made the poor decision to experiment with something and it ended up being a lethal dose of fentanyl,” Murray said.
The dealer who sold her son fentanyl is currently awaiting trial.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody was one of the event speakers. When it came to describing nationwide fentanyl deaths, she didn’t hold back.
“Some might call it mass murder. I think fentanyl should be a weapon of mass destruction. I’ve called for it to be labeled as a weapon of mass destruction,” Moody said.
Puerta agrees with Moody.
“We have to understand that last year alone, there were more than 75,000 fentanyl poisonings and overdoses in the United States. That’s 206 people dying every single day due to fentanyl,” he said.
Moody said Florida now leads all other states when it comes to fentanyl seizures. And while fentanyl has become a political hot topic, politics were left out of Thursday’s event.
Puerta and other advocates for fentanyl victims and the victims’ families said despite messaging campaigns to steer people away from harmful drugs, there is a misconception about fatal overdoses that prevent people from avoiding drug use.
“When you hear of someone who has died from using drugs, the first thing that comes to mind is, well that person must have been a recreational drug user or that person must have been a drug addict,” Puerta said. “What they don’t understand is that for the first time in the history of the United States, this drug is taking non-addicted children between the ages of 14 and 18, and many unsuspecting adults who are self-medicating with these counterfeit pills and it’s taking their lives.”
“We are in the worst social health crisis our country has ever seen, and the only way to end addiction, the only way to stop this crisis is to prevent it from starting in the first place,” said Michael DeLeon, an outreach youth director. “The only place we can do that is with our children. Most parents who lose a child to an overdose or poisoning of drugs state they didn’t know. They had no idea. Many don’t even know what fentanyl is.”
Parents and advocates said drug use today is far different and deadlier than when they were teenagers and young adults.
“When I was growing up, you could experiment with drugs, and you didn’t die. Now, you do. It’s Russian roulette,” Cuccaro said.
“Children are supposed to learn from their mistakes, not die from them,” Puerta said.
“It’s not just disheartening. It makes me angry because there is no reason for this to be happening,” Lee said.
If you or someone you know is abusing drugs and want help, you can call the National Drug Help Hotline at 1-844-289-0879.