I can only speak about the fentanyl crisis from my viewpoint, and I believe my daughter would be alive today if she had not gotten into a car accident and her doctor prescribed pain pills.

Jessie broke her hip and femur and lived in pain. If I had known the information I know today, I would have pushed recovery for Jessie from the time she left the hospital.

I realized Jessie had a pill problem when she left her children. Jessie stopped getting pain pills from her doctor and turned to the streets to feed her addiction. I reached out for help to save her life, and the doctors, police, judges, and even children's services shut the door in my face; she was an adult. No one would help me save Jessie's life, even though Jessie could not save her own life.

My husband and I both have daughters who have an addiction; sadly, mine died, and his daughter is in prison. I struggle today with Jessie's twin, stuck in the insanity of addiction with no help going forward. As a parent, we should be able to force our children into rehab regardless of their age. Casey's Law means well, but the parent must have the means to pay for it, and a doctor must evaluate the person with an addiction; both requirements are unrealistic. We are taking care of our illegal immigrants and leaving American people on the streets to die. Our rehab centers are a revolving door; we are not keeping them in treatment long enough, and when they walk out of the treatment centers, no one is following up with them, leaving them on the streets to die.

4 Them We Fight is just what the name says: we are fighting 4 them and fighting 4 our future generation. We started by putting up a billboard, hoping to share some truth with others. We then started going to our local fair and sharing the faces of others along with our daughter, trying to bring awareness to others. 2024 will be our 4th year at the fair, and sadly, we went from two booths to six with the faces of the lost due to fentanyl or other illicit drugs. We continue to put up billboards and go to our local festivals to bring awareness and hope to those still addicted. With our local church, we started a Celebrate Recovery that my husband dedicates every Friday to.

On September 14, 2024, 4 Them We Fight will host our first Teen Rally in hopes of raising awareness among preteens and teenagers. My husband and I have nine children and 29 grandchildren, and we want to make sure they are aware of the dangers surrounding them. They need to know that even if it looks safe and harmless, it doesn't mean it is.

I will be adding a blog to our website to tell Jessie's story through my eyes. What people do not seem to understand is even though my daughter died of fentanyl, she had an addiction for 13 years before her death, and I was on the frontline of her addiction with her. Jessie's overdoses, jail times, beatings, trap houses, and so much more affected more than Jessie; it affected her family, too. Imagine hearing a three-year-old girl tell you she wanted a mommy for Christmas. Regardless, Jessie is my daughter and a victim of a greedy system that cared about nothing but money.