CLEVELAND — Organizations continue to fight against the opioid crisis nationwide, including here in Cleveland.
The Drug Enforcement Administration will host its annual Family Summit on Saturday, giving anyone the chance to learn how opioids have impacted families first-hand.
Mathew Gamez did not know much about fentanyl when his 19-year-old son Miles died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021.
"He was taking something that he didn't know had fentanyl in it, and that's everything; everything has fentanyl in it. So, you have no idea what you're taking," said Gamez.
That's when Gamez and his wife decided to educate themselves, and now they work to spread awareness in Cleveland.
"Miles was a great kid, super smart, super energetic, taught himself how to play the guitar, he was in a band and just had a great personality," said Gamez.
The couple spends time with other families who have lost loved ones to overdose and people dealing with mental health issues, and they also hand out a few Narcan to people—hoping to prevent families from experiencing their tragedy through outreach.
"We need to break the stigma and communicate with everybody. We know the dangers of this, recognize who needs help, talk to them, and if they're active user, help them to survive another day by showing them they have the chance for recovery. We don't need people dying senselessly," said Gamez.
In 2023, there were more than 3,500 deaths in Ohio due to fentanyl. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 349 of those deaths were in Cleveland.
"The DEA has this great slogan called 'One Pill Can Kill.' Unfortunately, there's not one pill to fix it," said Gamez.
The One Pill Can Kill campaign aims to bring awareness to the significant nationwide surge in counterfeit pills that are marketed as legitimate but killing Americans.
"A lot of efforts have been made to try to mitigate that and prevent it. So, theoretically, the numbers should be higher, but the good work that people are doing in community organizations and across the DEA working to get the word out is making a difference," said DEA Group Supervisor Quinn Auten.
Like the DEA's family summit happening Saturday, where they will put names and faces to a drug crisis. People will hear from families who lost loved ones to drug overdoses or drug poisoning.
"The information being presented there is going to be specific to families, things to look for, what the threat is in the community. There's no better place to start than the home for parents to understand what the threat is, know what their children are facing, and then spread that knowledge," said Auten.
They are showing people that fentanyl deaths are not limited by age, race or economic background.
"It's all kind of people that are dying; It's moms, dads, grandmas, sons, daughters and even friends. We're losing everybody that comes across fentanyl," said Gamez.
Anyone can attend the family summit in Cleveland Public Square at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
