(NewsNation) — Stefanie Turner, mom and founder of The Tucker Project, shares her son’s fatal story after taking a drug laced with fentanyl. Turner emphasizes the importance of educating young people about the dangers of fentanyl.
NewsNation: “With me now is Stephanie Turner, she’s a mom and founder of the Tucker project named in honor of her son Tucker who died of a fentanyl poisoning in 2021. He took what he thought was a Percocet pill that he had bought online. Authorities say it is the most common way Americans are getting pills that contain this deadly drug. Stephanie, thank you for coming back to continue this conversation I appreciate your time. For those who are not familiar with Tucker’s story, tell us about your son to begin with.”
Stefanie Turner: “My son was a 19-year-old vibrant boy trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life when he grew up, just like a typical family. He has three younger sisters and unfortunately he was offered a Xanax pill in the form of—what he thought was Xanax—and for two months he was taking what he thought was prescription Xanax medication and unfortunately it was laced with fentanyl.
“I didn’t have any knowledge of that at all and that is kind of my Why behind that.
“That led into an addiction and ultimately just a few short months later his death.
“And I’m really passionate about education on the front-end because Tucker and I had those conversations, I just didn’t have the knowledge of fentanyl.
“I did not understand how lethal, how potent, I thought that it was—I knew pharmaceutical fentanyl, but I didn’t know about elicit fentanyl.
NewsNation: “And through your pain you have found a very important purpose as you say you’ve become an advocate. What is your message to parents and to young people all across the country country about the dangers and what you’ve learned about this drug?”
Stefanie Turner: “Yeah, unfortunately I learned everything far too late. And the fentanyl crisis is killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. It has killed more people than any than our deadliest war in history and that is terrifying to think about, and statistically what we know it to be the number one cause of death and that’s a really conservative number reporting isn’t always on that—and what we don’t take into account is those who not only lose their life but those who are now battling addiction for the rest of their life.”
“Fentanyl causes a mass amount of dopamine to flood into the brain and it really is hard for people to get get clean from after they have become dependent on it.
“We also have people who are have brain damaged from being without oxygen for so long and then those who are incarcerated.
“So when you take that toll of how many Americans this is impacting across the board, it’s crazy to me that we are not doing more. We need to demand more from those who can make the change.
“If you look at the numbers, the numbers continue to climb and I find that just infuriating as a parent who has lost a child but also representing other parents who have lost children.
“It’s really frustrating to know that we know where it’s coming from and we’re not doing more to not only stop the flow, but to educate the public.
“Especially educating our youth through through school initiatives and that’s with The Tucker Project that we’re that we’re doing that.
“We’re grateful the State of Georgia has implemented it through the Department of Education we’re grateful for that and we’re working with other states as well but it can’t come fast enough.” – Stefanie Turner
NewsNation: “So tell me about the Texas Against Fentanyl project through The Tucker Project what is your focus in schools what would you like to see happen and is happening.”
Stefanie Turner: “The Tucker Project is an interdisciplinary curriculum that’s written to the state standards so it’s really easy for teachers to roll that out into classrooms and it’s evidence-based information information provided in a really good way.
“What we found in Texas—we got House Bill 3908 passed requiring fennel education it’s titled Tucker’s Law in honor of my son but, schools don’t know—it’s an unfunded mandate and schools don’t know what to teach or how to go about that so that’s our goal with the Tucker Project.
“And then Texas Against Fentanyl is an organization on a Statewide level where we support those ho have lost we also work with law enforcement and we’re pushing for legislative changes on a Statewide level and ultimately federally as well.
NewsNation: “Stephanie when you speak to young people in your state across the country what do you believe is the biggest misconception about this deadly drug.”
Stefanie Turner: “The knowledge. There’s a general awareness but the only way we’re going to move from awareness to knowledge is through education, when—you know a kid is offered a pill or something else, you know fentanyl isn’t exclusive to pills. It can be found in anything. You can’t see it, you can’t taste it, you can’t smell it. It is being added.
“Here in Central Texas, we just had a huge—we had 79 fentanyl poisonings in one week in Travis County resulting in nine deaths. That number is terrible. But what they were confiscating was fentanyl that was laced with marijuana and that’s very scary.
“So explaining it just that, you don’t always know what it is.
“Most people aren’t seeking out fentanyl it’s put into something and then it creates a dependency.” – Stefanie Turner
