Families across region gather for U.S. DEA's 'Family Summit' in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS: In the back of a conference room at the federal courthouse downtown, a picture of Josh Fox's smiling face sits in a frame with a plaque that says, "forever 44"— his age when he died last summer.
Others were "forever 21," forever 30," and "forever 17." But all are adored and deeply missed by their families, who are bound together in their grief and shared tragedy: They lost their loved one to fentanyl poisoning.
On Thursday, 27 families from across the region — Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North and South Dakota — gathered for the second annual "Family Summit" hosted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
"It is the people that we now feel the most safe with. You've never met them and you know instantly that they know you," said Josh's mother, Malia Fox of Winona.
The group, she said, is "a club no one asked to join," but they all want to spare others the pain they feel by raising awareness of the dangers of the highly potent synthetic opioid, which killed 922 Minnesotans last year, according to preliminary data from the state's health department.
In total, more than 1,300 people died from some kind of drug overdose. Fentanyl is to blame for 62% of those deaths.
Justin King, special agent in charge at the Omaha Division of the DEA, which oversees the five states in the region, said the families are collaborators in the fight against the epidemic.
All DEA divisions are hosting similar events this month, the second wave of them since the the meetings first began last year. He characterized them as great successes that help spread the message of the dangers of the drug.
Seven out of 10 pills seized by DEA contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.
Law enforcement, prevention groups and U.S. attorneys participated, and families shared insight from their communities. They also get the chance to make connections with people who understand what they're going through.
"It's very courageous of these families to come and sit with us because it's a lot," King said in an interview with WCCO. "But it's so beneficial for us and our hope is that it's beneficial for them. We can help expand our efforts to really educate, help people get into treatment, and help raise awareness for this deadly drug."
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger believes that the public just doesn't know enough about how dire the situation is and said he alerts people of the dangers whenever he can.
He previously had the job from 2014 to 2017, before he returned to it last year. But the current rise in fentanyl trafficking and deaths, he told WCCO, is a "different universe" compared to his last stint.
"These are people who are spreading a poison that has the ability to kill anyone with one dose and that's a different game than we were in before," he explained. "It's more tragic. It's more serious. And all of us need to figure out a way to make this known so that nobody touches a pill again, unless they know where it came from."
Malia Fox said she was encouraged by what she heard from Luger and others at the Summit — that the DEA is really listening.
She is fighting so her son and others who died from fentanyl aren't forgotten.
"Because our kids are warriors in the drug epidemic, and they've died. They've given their lives," she said.