Executive Director
National Crime Prevention Council
October 19, 2022

“Thank you for joining us. I’m going to start by taking us back to the early days of the AIDS pandemic with a quote.

‘We’re all going to go crazy, living this epidemic
every minute, while the rest of the world
goes on out there, all around us, as if nothing is
happening, going on with their own lives and not
knowing what it’s like, what we’re going through.
We’re living through war, but where they are living
it’s peacetime, and we’re all in the same country.’

Those words from ACT Up Founder Larry Kramer were indeed from a different time. People were stigmatized for having a disease. Silence equaled death. It was accepted. Then courageous people showed up and said enough.

Today’s fentanyl crisis is different in some ways. But much the same at its roots. There is unawareness. There is stigma. There is anger. Most dangerously there is acceptance. There is silence. There is death. Enough is enough.

Addiction has always been with us. Drug overdose is common. It is so complex; it is easy to move on without acting. There is so much going on, people forget. They don’t see what is in front of them. It is easy to think it is someone else. A parent thinks not my child. A principal thinks not at my school. Until it happens in your family. At your school. In your community. In your home.

This tacit acceptance is unacceptable. There is no easy answer. Anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding you and themselves. Our nation must pledge to the find answers and that is why we are here today.

The good news is that our starting point is a bit higher than in the early days of the AIDS pandemic. In this room are government leaders who are already acting. For that they have our thanks and our urging to do more. Bringing them together with community leaders and parents today is part of the solution. It will help orchestrate a concert to replace today’s cacophony of noise.

Other missing pieces exist, but they need to be stitched together to create a stronger fabric to support change. Other pieces – like the development of effective, non-addictive pain relivers — await invention. New strategies are needed.

When I speak to parents who have lost a child, I hear two things. First, I hear a strong resolve. I see leaders like Amy Neville who overcame every parent’s worst nightmare and are turning their own sleepless nights into hope. They face critics who say they are too angry. To those critics, I say good. The anger is not misdirected. And the nation needs a loud wakeup call. As Larry Kramer taught the world, people who simply go along with the unacceptable seldom make history. The other thing I hear is a cry for help. It is a selfless act to help others escape a tragedy they know all too well. They are helping us thread the needle toward stitching a stronger fabric of life. Our obligation is to help sew.

For every parent, family member, and friend of someone lost from fentanyl I want to let you know McGruff and NCPC have your backs. After all, in the whole history of things, no one has probably had a bigger thing than McGruff working to keep kids safe from drugs.

Fentanyl was a 20th Century creation that is now being illegally, manufactured, and distributed, through a sophisticated 21st Century supply chain. To control it, new polices are needed that weave together ways to combat the supply, demand, and use. Drug cartels are capitalists who break the law. What McGruff has said from the very beginning is, “All crime needs is a chance.” Our nation is giving them too big a chance. Silence is giving this crime a chance.

The Department of Homeland Security will tell us more about what is happening to keep this dangerous poison from entering our nation. Those new efforts are an important part of the solution. But for those who think this is just a border issue, I hold up this sweetener packet. If this were fentanyl, it would be enough to kill 500 people. There is no border that can be made that secure.

The failure to adequately treat addiction needs to be addressed. Just as new approaches to criminal justice and drug enforcement are needed. The Drug Enforcement Administration has been quick to act. Everyone can benefit from learning more and doing more.

The War on Drugs made mistakes. Mistakes that should not be repeated. There is one thing America should just say no to, it is the sale of fake products. For too long the American public has turned a blind eye to the sale of fake products and it has gotten us to point where fentanyl is being sold to children on social media platforms. These same companies boast about the communities they create. Sadly, some are not safe communities. Features like encrypted technology and disappearing text messages from drug dealers to teenagers, create an open-air drug market to sell fake pills that are too often lethal. Today it is fentanyl. Tomorrow it will be something worse. No one is accusing those platforms of inviting in drug dealers. But those companies have an obligation to keep their platforms safe and free of drug dealers. That is not too much to ask. And the National Crime Prevention Council and McGruff the Crime Dog invite them to the table to be part of the solution and turn their social media platforms into safe communities.

Let’s be very clear. Those who suffer from addiction deserve compassion and treatment. Those who traffic in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of fake pills with fentanyl are murderers and need to go to jail for a very long time. You will hear from Deputy Under Secretary Brent about our efforts to have McGruff help change the buying habits of a new generation. NCPC is proud to be part of this innovative partnership.

Just like with AIDS, there are those who will want to play a numbers game. To get into arguments about how many people died from fentanyl poisoning. That is something for statisticians. Not for leaders. Too many lives have been cut short and it is time to act. Our call to action today pays direct homage to something that helped humanize AIDS. Each life is part of the fabric that is the story of our lives as a nation. Our response tells a hopeful story of who these United States are and will continue to be.

Today, McGruff the Crime Dog, as the symbol of safety and security for generations announces, the Lives Project Fentanyl Digital Remembrance Quilt. It is the story of these lives that motivate our call to action. In a couple of minutes, you will see the first patches of that quilt. Overnight, it will grow. During the coming weeks it will grow larger and larger. Too large. That is the sad reality of what is happening in our country. And I say our country because this is largely an American problem. It is digital so everyone can join. So that everyone sees the scope of this 21st Century problem and realizes it is fueled in part by drug dealers using 21st Century technology.

The family members who have risen above tragedy to use their voices to help save others are true heroes. To help McGruff launch the Lives Project, two of those heroes join us today. Actress and activist Ava Michelle and her mom Jeanette. Their brother and son Devon Michael is remembered in the quilt. Ava has been speaking up and speaking out. We thank her for using her voice and look forward to hearing her today.”