Fatal Facts of Fentanyl
The Fatal Facts of Fentanyl is dedicated to raising awareness of the illicit fentanyl crisis hitting the USA. It is killing tens-of-thousands of people who suffer from substance abuse disorders and first-time users.
There are no boundaries. It is straight across the board with the number of deaths without any regard to race, sex, socio-economics, age, education, religious background, location. It is in every community within our country.
The fentanyl crisis is deadlier than ever before for various reasons. It is time to address the many issues surrounding this crisis. It is time to listen and learn from experts. It is time to hear the many stories from people who have lost their loved ones due to death by deception.
Change begins with each of us as individuals and collaboration with others towards this positive transformation. The goal is to save lives and families from this travesty.
Awareness and Education are the key.
Knowledge is Power.
Fatal Facts of Fentanyl
Narcan Saved Lives, But It Couldn't Save His Son
A federal narcotics officer who lost his son to fentanyl shares his heartbreaking personal story while explaining the realities of fighting the deadly opioid crisis from both sides.
• Officer Rick's 19-year-old son died from fentanyl after multiple overdoses, despite Rick's 25 years of experience fighting illegal drugs
• The progression from marijuana to high-potency THC vapes (80-90% THC) to fentanyl poisoning
• Narcan (naloxone) saved Rick's son twice before the fatal overdose
• All families should have Narcan readily available regardless of suspected drug use
• Fentanyl is commonly smoked, snorted, or ingested in pill form rather than injected
• Law enforcement must build solid cases with "pieces of the puzzle" to successfully prosecute dealers
• Long-term investigations target higher-level suppliers rather than just street dealers
• The state court system is "broken" compared to federal prosecutions that have "more teeth"
• Drug dealers profit from death, exploiting users' "bulletproof mentality"
• The fentanyl crisis will likely worsen before improving without significant systemic changes
If you suspect someone is using drugs, please get Narcan. It's available at most pharmacies, sometimes for free, and could save a life. Call your representatives and senators to demand action on this crisis.
The Fatal Facts of Fentanyl podcast is dedicated to raising Awareness to the illicit FENTANYL crisis hitting the USA.
The goal is to SAVE LIVES and families from this travesty.
Awareness and Education are the Key.
Knowledge is Power!
The role of law enforcement in addressing illegal drugs in general and opioids specifically has evolved through time. It seems that law enforcement agencies are working towards three different goals. Number one preventing opioid fatalities. Number two provide longer-term assistance to opioid users to help them into recovery. Number three enforcing laws against the illegal sales of opioids. By the very nature of their work, law enforcement are on the front lines of the opioid crisis.
Speaker 1:My next guest is a United States Navy veteran, a retired state police officer and now a federal officer assigned to the narcotics division, also, sadly to say, a father who lost his son to fentanyl. Can you even imagine how you would feel that you devoted your whole career in trying to combat these crimes and your own son would lose his life to the very same thing that you've been fighting? I can't imagine. My next guest is Rick. My next guest is Rick. He has seen everything imaginable in his career and is enduring the most pain with the loss of his own son to this fentanyl crisis in our country. Welcome, rick. First and foremost, my deepest heartfelt empathy for you and your family. Foremost, my deepest heartfelt empathy for you and your family. Also, my gratitude and appreciation for your devoted service to your country, as painful as it is. Please share with us your son and how you tried so hard to educate and save his life hard to educate and save his life, he said.
Speaker 2:First of all I want to thank you for having me. I have to be honest with you, I wish I wasn't here talking to you about the dangers of fentanyl. But unfortunately, not only. You know myself, being in law enforcement over 25 years, I fight the fight every day, trying to get the drugs off the street. Never in a million years would I think our family would have been hit by the tragedy of fentanyl.
Speaker 2:I tried to educate my son about the dangers of drugs. We thought we had him on the right path. My son just graduated last year. He was set to go to college and unfortunately last year we lost our 19-year-old son. You know, for me my son he was always. You know people would say I was smart and my son he just was amazing. And that's what kills our family is the loss of life of our son and the potential that he had. We first started realizing that my son was into drugs and never did in a million years would we think that he would even go down the path of doing fentanyl. Never did in a million years would we think that he would even go down the path of doing fentanyl. My son had first started with marijuana and then later the marijuana did progress to the vape cartridges and then later to vape. I believe he did some other drugs.
Speaker 2:In July of last year in 2020, was the first time we realized that my son was doing fentanyl and, as you can imagine, as any parent, we actually went to check on my son in the morning and found him lying on the floor. One of the things that I do in my career is I get all types of drugs off the street and, lucky for me, that particular day I had Narcan, which it's called Narcan or Naloxone. You know I rushed up and I went from you know dad mode to cop mode and, just like I did when I was a state police officer, I provided you know first aid to people. Once again, never would I think I'd be doing first aid CPR on my own son. Virtually in July of last year, I was able to give my son a couple shots of Narcan. We called the ambulance. My son went to the hospital for a couple days and, you know, at that time we thought maybe it was just. You know, he got a bad batch of pill or something. He didn't know what he was taking. We had no idea of his addiction and how addictive fentanyl can be. We thought our son was my wife and I. We thought our son was doing well. You know he was still in school at that point. No, he'd already finished school actually, but he was working, was doing well. We thought he was set to go to college and I believe it was in August the second time.
Speaker 2:A few months later we found our son again on the floor. Luckily, once again I had to go into cop mode. Give my son Narcan and you know, once again the hardest thing a parent could ever see seeing your kid lying there and wanting to help them and realizing there's only so much you could do. Same thing. Ambulance came, they took him to the hospital, went to the hospital for a few days, got out and that was the toughest thing for us is my son at 19,.
Speaker 2:We were trying to get him into some type of program and unfortunately for us I'm not sure how it is elsewhere across the country, but there isn't a lot of resources when somebody's adult considered 19, and parents, even though our son was living at home, we couldn't force him to go into some type of program. So we monitored our son Once again. We thought he was on a good path. And unfortunately, the third and last time we found our son in the morning, it was in October. And same thing, I gave my son Narcan and it was too late. And when I saw him I kind of knew it was too late, but I still tried and tried and tried until the ambulance got here and I was not able to revive him. And so that's my story, and unfortunately I hear stories like that not just in my state but all across the country.
Speaker 1:Yes, rick, I am so sorry about your son and you're right, this is straight across the board. There's no boundaries, it's all over this country and it's going to continue, as you well know. You mentioned Narcan. A lot of people in our audience are aware of Narcan, but then a lot of people are not aware of Narcan. Can you explain to our audience what Narcan is?
Speaker 2:So Narcan, and if you're watching this, I want to tell everybody that everybody is at risk. If you have a young adult, if you have kids, even if you don't I mean the fentanyl is everywhere Everybody's at risk. If you don't have Narcan, go get some. There's places where you can get free Narcan. There's places you can go to Walgreens and get Narcan, sometimes free or relatively pretty cheap. But Narcan helps reverse the effects of overdose. It doesn't cure the overdose but it brings them back essentially from that fatal dose. It helps reduce that and because, like my son, the fentanyl was so strong that the body forgets to stop breathing. So luckily, when I had my son with Narcan, the Narcan was actually able to bring him back and help him breathe.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, thank you for that explanation and, yes, people need to contact their state about the availability of Narcan or your county that you live in. Like Rick just stated, it is free for a lot of people or it is prescription, but the main thing is to have Narcan in your home. Most law enforcement do carry Narcan to combat this, and also EMS people, the emergency responders, first responders and, of course, the ERs, but it is important nowadays, like he just explained, due to this fentanyl crisis and you know all the opioids and all the drugs floating around, it's important to have Narcan on board.
Speaker 2:I want to share a story with you. About two, three weeks ago I came across a mother that had suspected that her kid was using drugs. And I did ask her if she had Narcan at home and she said she didn't and actually gave her some and she suspected her son was just using marijuana and other things. And you know, same like my son, didn't know the extent of possibly what he was doing and unfortunately I prayed to her. I said here's Narcan, you know. I explained how to use it and I prayed that she would never have to use it and unfortunately the day I gave it to her she used it. That night saved her kid and so far her kid's on the right path and I hope he continues down that road.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, Thank you for sharing that story. And, as you stated, fentanyl and these drugs can be in weed and pot, marijuana, whatever you want to call it all these counterfeit pills. So NORCAN can possibly work on saving somebody's life and thank you for introducing that mom to it. If you will, please provide our audience your law enforcement background that you are allowed to share with us at this time.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm proud to share that I'm a United States Navy veteran. I proudly served four years for our country. After I got out I went to college and then I was fortunate to get picked up with the state police and I worked everything from the front line. I did patrol. My day-to-day patrol was to respond to calls, not only be proactive but reactive, and I fought the fight for my state, arrested criminals, took criminals off the street. And then I was fortunate to continue to move up through the ranks. I finished in our training division and then ended up finishing out with our special operations division where I did a wide variety of things, everything from overseeing our SWAT team to bomb team and pretty much all aspects of our department and, you know, search and rescue, other things like that.
Speaker 2:Currently I'm a federal officer. I'm assigned to the Narcotics Division. I'm not allowed to share who I work with, but I'm the narcotics division that I work with. It's my job now and my unit that I work with. Our job every day is to go out there and locate and arrest people who possess, distribute and manufacture illegal narcotics and, unfortunately, and manufacture illegal narcotics and, unfortunately, even back when I was a state police officer, I got some drugs and I would get drug dealers and drug users.
Speaker 2:But now in my job as a federal officer, the amount of drugs that we see on a daily, weekly basis. It's unbelievable. Even this week I got a felon with a gun with fentanyl and that was a career felon and that's one. I'll talk a little bit later about that. But that's one of the problems today in our state and I believe the 50 states across the United States is that the state court system is broken and fortunately for us now when we get somebody on federal charges they get hit pretty hard. I recently took down a felon. It was a long-term investigation. We got him with a wide variety of drugs, everything from cocaine to heroin, and also he was a felon with a gun and, I'm sad to say, we were able to get a conviction on him and he's going to be going away for a little while. So on the state side we probably get a slap on the wrist and, you know, you know, a free gift card, you know.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So you kind of touched upon my next question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, in case we left out anything. But I'm going to ask it anyway in case we left out anything. I want you to explain to our audience your firsthand experiences with the disruption of the drug trafficking operations that supply our communities with fentanyl, as you're loud, without divulging sensitive information, if you can provide as many details as you possibly can.
Speaker 2:Sure. So our main goal is to deter, detect and destroy. So essentially that's one of the things that we try and do is we try and locate drug dealers and we don't just go after the street level drug dealer. We go up the chain, we essentially go upstream. We try and put the hurt where we could put the hurt I could share with you even this week.
Speaker 2:We don't just go after the drug dealers, but we'll get them, we'll arrest them. We'll arrest anybody that's connected to them, anybody that is involved in that drug trafficking organization. If we can prove that they were involved in that, we will arrest them. And when they get hit on federal charges, they go away for a little while. The other thing that we do is we don't just stop there. In fact, even this week I was involved in a seizure that was well over probably somewhere around $150,000 in cash. So when we start taking their money, it makes a big difference. We kind of hurt them. So you know, I know I can speak for myself and the people in my unit Each and every day we go out trying to find and arrest somebody.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we get a quick and easy hit where we take somebody down, and then there's other types of investigations that are long term, investigations that are a little more complex, when we know somebody is deep-rooted in a community and dealing drugs in those communities and I could share this with you is that there are cells all over the United States and they continue to do this. Some will operate a year, some will operate five years or ten years, and the reason that they're allowed to continue is some of them they're sneaky, but they continue to do this because it's so profitable.
Speaker 1:It is. It's a multi-billion dollar industry, as you know. What are you seeing in our country now? In your opinion, is this the worst you have ever seen infiltrating our country with this fentanyl.
Speaker 2:You know, I probably first started and I can't remember when I first started seeing fentanyl. It's been quite a few years now, but it just seems over the last four or five years it has just progressed and progressed, and progressed. And, as you know, just in the last year, unfortunately we lost 93,000 US citizens and unfortunately my son was one of those ninety three thousand and, as you well know, your son and it's like no family is. Everybody, everybody's, at risk with what's happening and I've never seen it so bad. This is the worst I've ever seen. What we're dealing with on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:It most certainly appears that way. Yes, sir, it's so tragic. You know a lot of Americans don't understand about the fentanyl crisis. Probably do because there's not any public health awareness campaigns going on nationwide, or perhaps a lot of our government and politicians are not talking about it. Our schools really aren't educating about it. So can you explain this question to me, Because I get asked this a lot and I'm sure you do too. Why would a drug dealer kill their clients?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the reasons drug dealers don't intend to kill their clients. Unfortunately, that's what's happening. Once again, the proof is in the pudding Ninety three thousand people died last year. But the reason that the drug dealers, once again, they're not trying to kill their clients, they're trying to profit off the death of US citizens, and one of the reasons that is so profitable Can you imagine? It's not just 93,000 people that died. 93,000 people weren't the only ones that are taking fentanyl. There are hundreds and if not millions of people across the United States using drugs every day, and so, while 93,000 died, the number of people that lived that didn't die they're profiting off the death of our kids, off our young adults and citizens, and once again, it's so profitable and that's why they continue to do it. The other thing is that they're profiting off of the death of citizens, and the reason that it's so profitable is that I can speak for my son, and once again, I'm sure your son as well is that kids, they have a bulletproof mentality, they have a fearlessness and they think oh, my friend Joe, you know he passed away from fentanyl and you know I use fentanyl and it's not going to affect me. Well, that's not the case, they continue to use it and eventually, that's the danger of the pills on the street is that they're different level of batches.
Speaker 2:I just recently talked to a drug dealer the other day that was actually a user of fentanyl that I had arrested and I asked him.
Speaker 2:He had told me he took two pills that morning and I asked him. I said well, aren't you afraid that if you take two pills, you know, and I could speak for my son, I think it was one and I said how did you know? And I could speak for my son, I think it was one. And I said aren't you, how did you know to take one pill or two pill? And he essentially told me oh, I take one pill and after I pass out, if I wake up an hour and a half and it you know, if it hadn't knocked me out, you know for more than that then I know it's a bat or a weak batch of pills and I could take another pill.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I'm sure you all have heard the story with Dr Laura Berman. She and this is another danger she her son, I believe got it off of a Snapchat and they checked on him. I think it was an hour, half hour and when they went to check on him gone and you know it's everybody's at risk with this dangerous fentanyl that's on our streets.
Speaker 1:Everyone is at risk. It seems like there's different categories to this. They're the seasoned users I call them the seasoned users who have an addiction to opioids and they are using fentanyl. And they know they're using fentanyl and somehow, by the grace of God, they are alive, but still using fentanyl.
Speaker 1:I also did an interview with a young lady who told me all the facts about the fentanyl high. It was the best high. It surpasses heroin and anything else, and that was her description. And I asked her the same question knowing that people are dying in record numbers in this country and you still are using fentanyl, why? And she couldn't give me a logical answer she goes I don't know why. I don't know why, lisa. All I know is it's highly, highly addictive. Who thinks you're buying cocaine or even heroin, or Oxycontin or Percocet or whatever, or pot, and then it is laced or cut into all these drugs fentanyl is, and they are being poisoned because they are buying something that they are not aware of. It's like if arsenic was put in something like our drink or food at a restaurant. We'd be poisoned. That's what they're doing. They're being deceived, thinking they're buying another drug and say, for instance, that they thought they were buying cocaine and it was pure fentanyl. That's death by deception. That's murder.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Then you've got what you explained Dr Laura Berman's son, 16 years old, I believe his name was Sammy. This is happening across our country too. You've got the middle school age, the high school age, going on Snapchat, social media, being groomed, either you know, either by dealers, and also that you know Snapchat is encrypted information. The message goes away. However, they're being sold pot or Adderall or Xanax or Percocet or Oxycontin, thinking it's that, and they're being told that, and then all of a sudden, they're found dead, just like what you described, because it's all straight fentanyl. While we're on the subject, can you describe how, the many ways fentanyl is ingested? A lot of people have the misconception that you know you're. Someone is shooting up with a needle in their arm. That's what's depicted in our entertainment, in our movies. Can you share with us the facts about the many ways fentanyl is ingested?
Speaker 2:Sure, the ways that I've seen fentanyl ingested, most commonly people actually will ingest it. But another common way is they'll actually break it up and they'll actually smoke it. I know I could speak for my son. We actually didn't find this out till later, but it was actually some tinfoil. You'll see some black in the tinfoil and they'll have a tube and and they'll actually smoke it and one of the reasons I believe they they like that's one of their preferred methods because it hits them a little quicker. It gets into their system versus ingesting it, so it's a little quicker. I've also seen where users will break up the pill and they'll snort it like you would cocaine and I've heard of people you know mixing it and ingesting it with a needle. But Fentanyl is it's so easy to smoke or ingest or snort that it's not very common to see somebody ingest or air inject it with a needle.
Speaker 1:Thank you for clarifying that. Also, you touched upon the vapes, the cartridges and vapes. Please share with us about youres. Please share with us your knowledge about the cartridges and the vapes and the THC levels. And what do all of these drugs do to the brain chemistry?
Speaker 2:So once again, unfortunately, firsthand. Our family experienced that and never in a million years did I think that our son would have progressed where he did. But vapes is right now on the street. It's legal to buy. You could go down to your local gas station or even your grocery store and buy vape cartridges and the vape pens, even the legal stuff where you actually have the, you know which is the cigarette, the nicotine. It's so potent it's essentially almost, you know, in a day you're almost smoking like a pack of cigarettes.
Speaker 2:As far as the vape cartridges with THC, years ago when we used to get people with marijuana, just marijuana on the street, the percentage of marijuana in just a regular marijuana joint would probably be somewhere between 3% to 6%. The THC vape cartridges that we're seeing now they're anywhere between 80% to 90% and I believe that was one of the things that affected my son, you know, and we should have seen the signs, you know. But we chalked it up to a teenager and a moody teenager. But I believe and I know our son was affected by the high level, the high doses of THC. It affects the compound of the brain, theirpe cartridges, it's affecting their brain compound and I can actually speak to that that people talk about.
Speaker 2:Oh, marijuana is not a gateway drug. It may not be for everybody, but unfortunately it was for my son and when he progressed from marijuana to THC, to, you know, fentanyl, I think that change change in his compound. He had that drive to try and fill that, uh, that void. And uh, you know my son, he was actually bit and I think, unfortunately, uh, kind of like getting bit by a snake is, once they're bit, it has a hold on him and they can't escape it. It just uh, it never lets go and, and unfortunately, 93,000 people were similar to my son and unfortunately lost their life.
Speaker 1:When you just said that about the snake and being bit, I had this visual, this huge, big old rattlesnake somewhere and, like you said, it is poison. It's very poisonous, Rick. Let's now talk about go back to your law enforcement mode. When a policeman is doing an investigation, can you please explain to our audience what probable cause is, what they mean when to build a good case, and then also what happens if they don't build a good case? And I know this is a loaded question and probably a lengthy one, but I would like to educate our audience about this. So there's no misconceptions, and the blame game has got to stop in this country. The stigma towards everybody to me, that's my opinion. But can you explain the legal process in our judicial system?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, first I can explain public cause and I can put it in a very simple way. And for crimes, there are elements to each crime. So, for example, if I'm charging somebody with possession of illegal narcotics with intent to distribute, that crime itself it has elements and those elements, I would say, are like pieces of a puzzle. I have to prove each piece of that puzzle in order to get to charge somebody and to our ultimate goal is to get a conviction. So we have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that, more likely than not, that that person did possess drugs with intent to distribute. So we have to show that. So that's what we do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:We go after people, we do an investigation and, like I said, sometimes it's a short-term investigation that we catch somebody with their hand in the cookie jar. They possess enough drugs to be charged and they go down. They possess enough drugs to be charged and they go down. There's other people that they're longer term investigations, that they're higher level drug dealers, they're a little smarter, they have other people that work for them. It takes us a while to work the chain and get to what we call the big fish, but I could speak for my agency and other agencies across the country is that we try and work together and get as much as we can. But unfortunately, even myself and other agencies that are going out there and fighting this fight as we can, because I know and I could speak for myself and my unit that when any little bit of drugs that we get off the street we're saving somebody, we're making a small difference and that's why we do what we do.
Speaker 1:Thank you. What types of evidence are necessary and permissible in court?
Speaker 2:What types of evidence are necessary and permissible in court. Well, we have to show, for example. Obviously I can speak, for example, like fentanyl. We would never bring fentanyl into a courtroom, it would be too dangerous. So what we do is when we seize the drugs, we get the drugs, we take photographs, sometimes we'll video, we'll talk to the people suspected of doing what they're doing. We send the drug off to the lab. The lab will test the drug. So we use all that evidence and all that evidence helps us.
Speaker 2:We have to go through a trial and you know it'll either be a judge or jury trial. Most common it's at 12 jurors that oversee Both sides get to have the opportunity to present their case and that's when we, if we present a good case, we get a guilty conviction. If we do a sloppy job, we lose the case. But ultimately that's our goal is to get a guilty conviction. But a lot of times when we have a good, solid case and there's no, I would say, break in the chain, the case is so solid that a lot of times they'll take a plea deal because if they go to trial they'll face more time if they lose in trial versus taking a plea deal from the court or the attorney's office.
Speaker 1:A plea bargain, right? Yes, okay, you know a lot of our all of us, all of us grieving parents have lost our sons and daughters and of course we want immediate action when this happens, daughters, and of course we want immediate action when this happens. And a lot of us are told well, we have to get probable cause and we have to build a good case. And our question is well, so you're allowing, you know who the drug dealers are and you're still allowing them to be on the streets killing other people. Well, that's our immediate emotional response and everyone can understand that. But then can you explain to us across the country how it goes a step further? Most communities have a drug task force or narcotics division and they are going after the dealers, the dealers in our communities and the cartel that are sweeping our nation in all communities. Can you explain to us a little bit about that, what I am trying to convey?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things that I could share with you is that earlier, when you said people want immediate action, unfortunately with these type of drug investigations, that I could drive 20, 30 miles from where I currently live and I could find a drug dealer and I may know or believe that he's a drug dealer or she, but I can't just knock on the door and say, hey, drug dealer, I'm taking you to jail. Like I stated earlier, we have to't just knock on the door and say, hey, drug dealer, I'm taking you to jail. Like I stated earlier, we have to prove those pieces of the puzzle. So that's where we come in, myself and other people that I work with. We do an investigation and throughout the course of our investigation and other tactics that we use, we build those pieces of puzzle. We put a nice puzzle together and when we present that to the United States Attorney's Office, then now, and only then, can we actually charge somebody. So, unfortunately, some of those bigger ones, they take longer terms.
Speaker 2:I've had cases that you know once again. I catch somebody, you know in a week and you know, like when I said their hands in the cookie jar, essentially they're in possession of drugs. I could arrest them, charge them and show that they possess drugs with intent to distribute. Other cases that I've worked, some have taken months and I've had cases that have lasted a year or more that were longer term investigations.
Speaker 2:That investigations that you know and sometimes we do that for a reason is that we may know there's somebody bigger up the chain and if we take somebody down at a lower level we're not stopping the problem. We may be taking somebody down, but we know somebody at a higher level is the one that is manufacturing that fentanyl. And you know I could speak even just this year we took down a big ring that had a pill press and was actually making pills. So had we picked off the lower level person, we wouldn't have gotten that pill press and the tens of thousands of pills that not only did we seize, but that was out there on the street and we were Thank you for explaining that process.
Speaker 1:Some people may not understand it, but I think it's very important to understand that it is a process in this country and there are laws and rules that people have to abide to, so it's not thrown out of our courtrooms. So thank you for your hard work. Can you explain to us the different types of indictments?
Speaker 2:Can you explain to us the different types of indictments? Sure, well, there's different types of ways to charge somebody. The United States Attorney's Office they could file what we call information, where we present the case to the United States Attorney's Office. They see, they look at the different charges and they look at those charges. They will decide oh yeah, we're going to charge this person with failing in possession of a gun. They're going to charge them for distributing, manufacturing, producing narcotics. So they'll get charged by information.
Speaker 2:Another way is sometimes when I come across somebody that is a drug dealer in my unit, when we actually see somebody, we'll actually charge them by a criminal complaint. So we actually fill out the paperwork, I do a criminal complaint and an affidavit, we file that in the court, arrest the offenders, put them in jail and then they start the court process. That way, the last way that somebody can be charged on the federal level is through a grand jury indictment and it's kind of similar. We present the case to the Assistant United States Attorney's Office. They look at all the evidence, they have a grand juror and a grand juror is kind of like a jury, but it's closed, it's sealed, it's confidential. But the case is presented and if we get a true bill during the grand jury, they will issue the appropriate charges and or arrest warrant if applicable. And then that's when we are the United States Attorney's Marshals goes and we hunt down the offenders that are charged with their alleged crimes.
Speaker 1:Thank you. While we're on the subject, you've got your local law enforcement, Then you've got the Vice and Nar narcotics division in most cities and towns. Then you've got the DEA. What role does each of those play in trying to combat this issue?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things I could say is that the unit that I'm currently with and once again I'm a federal officer, I work in a narcotics division Can't disclose who I work for, but one of the reasons that our unit is so successful and we're one of the most successful in our agency across the country, and one of the reasons that we're so successful and I hope other officers, if anybody watches it is that the key to being successful is establishing partnerships, and I work with the state and locals.
Speaker 2:I work with other federal agencies when they want to work with us, and it's by working together that I believe that we could truly make a difference, and so by working with the state and locals. For example, when the state and local have something, normally the state would charge them at the state level, but when they have something, that is possibly a good federal case. What I mean by that is they possess federal-level dope and I won't go down and break down the amounts of different dopes because it's different for different types of drugs. But when you have a big drug dealer, that should be charged on the federal side, not the state side. We have a little more teeth. We could put a little more hurt on those drug dealers than they could had they been charged on the state side.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Okay, rick, I'm going to ask you some questions. What motivates you? What do you hope happens If we lived in a perfect world? What do you think needs to happen to further combat this fentanyl crisis?
Speaker 2:Well, what motivates me is I've always, you know, once again, I'm proud to have served my country, I'm proud to have served my state and I'm proud of the job that I'm doing as a federal officer in the Narcotics Division. What motivates me is I've doing as a federal officer in the narcotics division. What motivates me is I've always had a strong sense of right and wrong. Once again, unfortunately, I wish I wasn't here today. I wish I wasn't the father of a son who lost his life to fentanyl. I even talked to my son about that and never did. I think I would lose my own son after I taught him about the dangers. You know, we're a strong Christian family and once again it hit us. It could hit anybody. But what motivates me is I try and get as much drugs off the street. I know that every week, every day, when I make an arrest in my unit once again, I'm not taking credit for the whole my unit but I know by working with the people that I work with and we get drugs off the street, we're saving somebody, we're saving somebody's life, and so that's what motivates me.
Speaker 2:In a perfect world, unfortunately, I hate to say, I don't see that happening anytime soon. The fentanyl crisis that is happening across our country. It is at a terrible level, you know, losing 93,000 lives. I hate to see what's going to happen in another year because the fentanyl that's on the street, it is so potent, sometimes even one pill kill and unfortunately we see that almost every day, every week, and you know I could speak with the last two weeks of situations that I know where people of pills that are on our streets in my state that people are losing their lives. So I actually don't know how to answer that question actually, I know it's a very hard question, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Why do you think this is happening in our country, killing records and numbers of young adults down to our youth?
Speaker 2:Well, unfortunately, I guess I could share this with you is that you know China, mexico, the gangs, the cartel. They figured it out. It's profitable for them. They make a lot of money and they don't care if people are dying. They are feeding off the bullproof mentality of our citizens, they're feeding off that fearlessness and they're profiting off of people dying. And that's the sad part. And as long as they're profiting, they're going to keep doing it. The other drugs you know, for example, cocaine, heroin, heroin, meth. They cost higher. Fentanyl is so cheap to produce and it's so profitable and that's why they're doing it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to take this question a step further. Why do you think there's no public health awareness campaigns across our country? Why do you think our government no public health awareness campaigns across our country? Why do you think our government is not talking about it? Why does it appear that our mainstream media is not talking about it? Can you answer that?
Speaker 2:You know it's crazy. I saw something in our US Congress. What was it? The National Transportation Safety Bureau. They're going to be doing a study and it was something to the effect that they're trying to make a big push to put a breathalyzer in new vehicles down the road. So they're trying to push something to the effect like every car sold has to have that.
Speaker 2:And you know, we all know DWI is a problem across our country, but unfortunately our politicians don't get it and I don't know if they care Until it hits their family. I don't know if they'll get it and they obviously, I don't think are listening to what's really happening on the streets. And so I think for us to get their attention, we need to call our representatives and our US senators, and it needs to start from the top down. And until that does, this is going to continue. I can share that.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I believe our current system is broken. I can't speak again for all 50 states across the US, but our state system, our state court system, is a joke. Once again, my unit we took down a felon with fentanyl this week. This guy was in and out of jail and I could share with some of the charges. This guy got hit on state charges. He probably had 23. His rap sheet was longer than I am tall and out of all the charges that he had, they would dismiss him and let him go. Dismiss him, let him go. I think he had maybe four or five convictions. Maybe did you know four or five years in jail where he probably should have been in jail the rest of his life.
Speaker 2:It's terrible. And until our state court systems fixed, until they start holding people accountable you know the state, they have laws on the books. If the judges would hold people accountable, the judges would hold people accountable. But, as we all seen in California, california is a joke. I mean the state system is completely broken. Look at the crime that's happening. You can even see it up in Oregon, in Washington. The state system is broken. So the state system needs to be fixed and the judges need to start holding people accountable when they commit crimes and fortunately for my agency on the federal level, we are able to do that and the judges are holding people accountable when we present a good case.
Speaker 1:It's frightening, isn't it? Oh? Yeah, it's actually mind blowing.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's scary and it breaks my heart. It's what's happening and just the crime and the death that's happening. That's preventable.
Speaker 1:It could. It could easily be preventable. It's actually a simple concept, you know, when you think about it and it is it a good good versus evil? I mean, there's no doubt and and I don't know why our country isn't addressing it like it should. I just you know that's probably a million dollar question and probably a lot of various answers to that question, but there are people in this country. I still have faith. There are people like yourself and really good people who are trying to combat this on a daily basis and we are not going to be silenced no one in this country when you're going towards something like this and trying to save our young adults trickling down to our children, possibly in elementary school. For, for all we know, we've got our work cut out for you. For us, we do. We aim to deal with the factual information on this podcast. I think you touched upon this a little bit, but do you see an end to this? What is the reality of this situation right now?
Speaker 2:You know, unfortunately, I wish I wish I could see into this, I wish I could arrest the biggest fentanyl dealer and it'd be all over. But unfortunately, there's a lot of people that are involved in this, a lot of legal gangs and people that are selling this. I don't see an end to this. I believe it's going to have to get worse before it gets better, unfortunately, and I wish that was not the case. Gets better, unfortunately, and I wish that was not the case. But all I could say is you know, for myself, I'm going to continue to fight the fight. I'm going to continue to go after the people that are trying to poison and kill our kids. The other thing I could say for you know, people that are watching is it hits people, all aspects, I mean. I personally know of kids 13 and adults all the way up into their 50s and 60s that have died as a result of fentanyl. So there's no specific age range. It's not just teenagers that are at risk, everybody's at risk.
Speaker 1:Thank you, rick. As our audience can hear, this battle, with all the aspects of fentanyl plaguing our society is not an easy task. This is a constant battle and we are barely scratching the surface. Everyone in this country should be enraged due to the lack of public awareness and the lack of action and implementation for our government towards saving lives and protecting all citizens. That is the main duty of our elected officials.
Speaker 1:In every profession there are good and bad people. Every profession is also affected by this opioid addiction and issue. Gone are the days of drug experimentation. This is literally life or death. Gone are the days with parents thinking, oh, this won't happen to my kid, not my child. There are so many outside influences bombarding people with the Internet, social media, all the entertainment world, misinformation of prescription and non-prescription drugs, stigma, mixed messages from our politicians, our mainstream media, etc. Etc. Etc. Wake up, america. Thank God for people like Rick, who is one of the good guys fighting this ongoing battle and is proud to serve his country and lives through his example of fighting the fight while holding on to his hope, faith and love. God bless you, sir.
Speaker 2:Thank you Lisa.
