Mom of 15-year-old who died from fentanyl gives emotional speech that brings many to tears at RNC



A mother of a 15-year-old boy who died of an overdose gave a passionate and emotional speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

Anne Fundner recalled the devastating loss of her son in 2022 to a captivated audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

'This was not an overdose; this was a poisoning.'

Fundner said her son went to church twice a week in southern California and she tried to protect him from drugs, but tragedy found her family still.

"Like most teenagers, Weston wanted to fit in. And in a moment of peer pressure, he tried something that someone gave to him, and it took my baby's life," said Fundner. "We did everything right; I had those conversations with him. And fentanyl still found my son."

She added, "This was not an overdose; this was a poisoning."

Fundner blamed Democrats for the lax security at the border for the influx of illegal drugs into the country.

"I hold Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the 'border czar,' what a joke, and Gavin Newsom, and every Democrat who supports open borders responsible for the death of my son."

She received tremendous applause after that line, and many chanted, "Joe must go!" in the hall.

Fundner pointed out that fentanyl has become the number-one cause of death for Americans between 18 years old and 45 years old under Biden's watch.

"This is not a red or blue issue; this is a red, white, and blue issue," she continued. "And fentanyl doesn't care if you're black or white; it does not discriminate. This is an American issue."

She went on to call on Americans to vote for former President Donald Trump, who applauded in the stands.

"This fight is not for me; my son is gone. This fight is for your children," she added.

Fundner's speech was widely praised on social media.

"I have chills watching this beautiful mom, Anne Fundner, who lost her sweet child to fentanyl, speak at the RNC. The love and support from the audience, the standing ovation is wonderful," said Kayleigh McEnany, former press secretary under Trump.

The entire speech was posted to Trump's YouTube video account and can be watched here.

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Babysitters charged after TODDLER dies from fentanyl overdose in North Carolina



On "The Chad Prather Show," BlazeTV host Chad Prather reluctantly discussed the tragic story of a 16-month-old baby who died of a fentanyl overdose in North Carolina.

"Most of the time I kind of like to come on here and try to be funny, maybe make you think a little bit about a deep topic that we can have fun picking apart," Chad said. "But then, every once in a while I'm forced to wedge myself into public-service-announcement mode, and while that's a lot less fun, it might be important."

Two women have been indicted by a grand jury after a child in their care died of a fentanyl overdose. Haley Odessa Godshall was babysitting her friend’s toddler, Kingston Jenkins, for the day, but was also hanging out with another friend Daisy Renee Bare, Chad explained.

According to the timeline of events, the two women smoked meth together, then picked up Kingston and headed to Godshall's home. When the baby fell asleep, Godshall gave her friend some fentanyl. Both women used the drug and then fell asleep. When they awoke, Kingston was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The cause of death was a lethal dose of fentanyl.

"But here’s the thing, fentanyl, as we know, doesn’t take a whole lot to kill a person. A few grains of it can be lethal under the right circumstances, and that’s for an adult," Chad said. "I think the pretty obvious first place to land on this is: Don’t do drugs around children and especially don’t do dangerous drugs that can kill you around them."

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15-year-old girl overdoses on fentanyl and dies on bathroom floor of high school in Hollywood, 3 other students hospitalized



A high school student overdosed on fentanyl and died on the floor of her high school bathroom, according to police. Another student overdosed but survived.

The incident unfolded on Tuesday evening at the Bernstein High School in Hollywood at about 9 p.m.

The Los Angeles Police Department said in a release that officers responded to a call from a stepparent who reported finding his stepdaughter after she had overdosed.

While his stepdaughter was still responsive, she told the stepparent that her friend had also overdosed in the school bathroom.

“The parent found a school employee, entered the women’s restroom, and found an apparent overdose victim who was unresponsive,” the LAPD said. “The parent administered aid as directed by 9-1-1. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene and determined the victim (was) deceased.”

Investigators said the girls had purchased pills at Lexington Park they believed wto be Percocet, or oxycodone, but they were laced with fentanyl.

Police said there were two other overdose incidents reported near Lexington Park.

“It is believed that the overdose victims are students of Bernstein and local high schools,” the LAPD said.

LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho visited the families of students to console them on Wednesday and released a statement about the incident.

“This is a scourge and an epidemic that is going on across the country,” Carvalho said. “It is unacceptable, but it is even more unacceptable when it impacts the youth of our community. There is no excuse for that nor is there tolerance for that.”

He said Lexington Park had been closed and that police were close to identifying the person who sold the pills.

Deaths from fentanyl overdoses have soared in California among 15 to 19-year-olds since 2012, according to the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard. There were 4,009 overall deaths in California related to fentanyl in 2020, during the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

Several L.A. high school students overdose, 1 dieswww.youtube.com

Student at special needs school allegedly overdosed on fentanyl. Police arrested the school's bus driver and her husband.



The bus driver at a special needs school in Riverside, California, was arrested after she was accused of providing fentanyl to students.

The shocking incident unfolded at Bright Futures Academy after police were called out on a report of an "incorrigible juvenile" at the school on Tuesday.

While there, a school official alerted the police to the possibility of an employee selling drugs to children.

A week prior to that report, one child who was a student at the school had allegedly overdosed on fentanyl at their home.

Police searched the home of the employee, who was identified as 46-year-old Melissa Harloam-Garrison. Her home was a cottage that was on school property.

"Officers conducted a search of the cottage and found over a hundred suspected Fentanyl pills, two handguns, and various types of ammunition," police said in a statement on Instagram.

They posted a photograph of the handguns, the suspected fentanyl, and ammunition along with a Jelly Belly Star Wars candy tin.

Harloam-Garrison was held at the Robert Presley Detention Center on $50,000 bail.⁣ She was charged with possession of narcotics for sale, sale of narcotics to minors, possession of controlled substances, drug addict in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm on school campus, being a person prohibited from owning or possession a firearm, and child endangerment.

Her husband, 58-year-old David Garrison, was also arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm on campus and being a person prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm. He was held on $25,000 bail.

Riverside police said the investigation was still ongoing.

KTLA reported that the woman was possibly the daughter of the person who operates the school, which is a non-public school serving special needs children from kindergarten to the twelfth grade.

Here's a local news report about the harrowing incident:

Riverside school employee arrested for allegedly giving students fentanylwww.youtube.com

Two men arrested with enough fentanyl to kill 4.7 million people: 'It's easy to get and it is killing our children'



Two men face a slew of drug charges after they were reportedly caught in California with enough fentanyl to kill 4.7 million people — and that's in addition to 800 pounds of methamphetamine police discovered, CBS News reported on Friday.

What are the details?

Authorities say 36-year-old Edgar Alfonso Lamas and 53-year-old Carlos Raygozaparedes were busted with the drugs in Ocean County, California — the largest drug bust to take place in the Southern California county in nearly two decades.

On March 17, police made the discovery at a Buena Park home: a whopping 821 pounds of methamphetamine, approximately 190 pounds of cocaine, and more than 20 pounds of fentanyl pills.

“Millions of unsuspecting people have the grim reaper looking over their shoulder and they have no idea how close they actually are to dying from taking a single pill. Fentanyl is cheap, it’s easy to get and it is killing our children, our coworkers, and tens of thousands of innocent Americans who don’t have to die,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement on the huge drug bust.

Both Lamas and Raygozaparedes have pleaded not guilty on the drug charges.

They remain in custody on $5 million bail and are due in court on June 7.

The two face a maximum sentence of 37 years and four months in prison if convicted on all counts, which include multiple felony charges of possession for sale of a controlled substance and multiple counts of the sale or transportation for sale of a controlled substance.

Both Lamas and Raygozaparedes were also charged with two felony enhancements due to the controlled substances exceeding 80 kilograms by weight and two felony enhancements as the controlled substances exceeded 20 kilograms by weight or 400 liters by liquid volume.

What else?

On Wednesday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration released a notice warning state and federal officials that the drug is behind a national spike in mass overdose events.

A portion of the notice, courtesy of administrator Anne Milgram, read, "The DEA is seeing a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events involving three or more overdoses occurring close in time at the same location."

"In just the past two months, there have been at least 7 confirmed mass overdose events across the United States resulting in 58 overdoses and 29 overdose deaths," the letter continued. "Many of the victims of these mass overdose events thought they were ingesting cocaine and had no idea they were in fact ingesting fentanyl."

The notice warned all local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to reach out to the DEA for assistance should they experience any mass overdose events and cautioned that fentanyl is not only masquerading as cocaine, but showing up cut into other drugs and being sold as fake prescription pills appearing to be OxyContin, Percocet, and more.

Spitzer on Wednesday added, “With fentanyl in an estimated 40 percent of street drugs, it’s not a matter of if but when someone you know and love dies from fentanyl. We have to continue to do everything we can to combat this deadly drug epidemic and save lives.”

Drug bust nets enough fentanyl to kill nearly 5 million people www.youtube.com

NYC is funding vending machines that will dispense clean syringes for those 'disproportionately burdened' by overdoses



New York City will address the drug overdose crisis by installing public vending machines that will dispense clean hypodermic needles for those "disproportionately burdened" by overdoses.

The project is expected to cost taxpayers $730,000.

Ten public vending machines will be installed in select locations in New York City, and they will be stocked with "harm reduction and wellness supplies" that include clean syringes and the anti-overdose drug naloxone.

In a request for proposals by the non-profit organization installing the vending machines, the group blamed systemic racism and white privilege for unequal access to "resources and opportunities afforded to White people."

Experts say the United States is in the middle of a worsening drug overdose crisis. In a span of 12 months, ending in April 2021, fentanyl overdose became the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-45, with more than 40,000 deaths compared to 22,000 car accident deaths, 21,000 suicide deaths, and 21,000 deaths from COVID-19.

“We are in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever been in in the United States,” said Harm Reduction Action Center executive director Lisa Raville. “In a magical world there would be no drugs, but we live here.”

New York City health officials reported over 2,000 overdose deaths in the 2021 year alone.

Not everyone is thrilled about these harm mitigation efforts. Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York mocked the program in a tweet from his social media account.

"It's being reported that NYC’s latest answer to the drug abuse epidemic is to dispense needles from vending machines like candy. That’s on top of new locations around NYC to shoot up," tweeted Zeldin.

It's being reported that NYC\u2019s latest answer to the drug abuse epidemic is to dispense needles from vending machines like candy. That\u2019s on top of new locations around NYC to shoot up. People should be encouraged to get OFF drugs, not having govt load them up w/ tools to use more.
— Lee Zeldin (@Lee Zeldin) 1641245129

"People should be encouraged to get OFF drugs, not having govt load them up w/ tools to use more," he added.

Outraged neighbors in one Brooklyn neighborhood counted more than 200 discarded hypodermic needles found in one garbage can near a public school, according to a WPIX-TV report.

One angry resident told WPIX that drug addicts openly inject themselves in full view of the schoolchildren walking to the school in the morning.

Here's more about the needle crisis in New York City:

Heroin epidemic layers Bronx neighborhood riddled with needleswww.youtube.com