Rainbow-colored fentanyl tablets. (Drug Enforcement Administration)
After an unstable childhood, Sheyka Lyon said that she had lost herself as an adult with drug addictions. She made her way to Virginia as a sex trafficking victim, she said, but found recovery when tapping into support programs at Caritas — a Richmond-based nonprofit that supports people in recovery from substance abuse.
“It really does take a village,” she said as she recounted her journey, from receiving help to now working as a peer navigator at Caritas and earning her degree in social work. After speaking to a crowd at the organization’s headquarters on Tuesday, she then introduced Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The governor focused on the village mindset as he noted various efforts inside and outside his administration to combat fentanyl addictions and support Virginians in recovery. 1,772 people experienced fentanyl-related deaths in 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Health .
Amid the somber moments reflecting on lives lost to fentanyl overdoses were statements of hope as he announced the expansion of the “It Only Takes One” fentanyl overdose awareness campaign that had piloted in Roanoke earlier this year.
“No community is immune,” Youngkin said of addiction. “We have work to do.”
Earlier in the year, Virginia First Lady Suzanne Youngkin visited Roanoke multiple times for awareness events promoting the campaign that urges community members to take a pledge to talk to teens about the dangers of fentanyl.
Youngkin also highlighted other efforts to combat fentanyl use and abuse, including Attorney General Jason Miyares’ “one pill can kill” campaign and the Narcan trainings he and First Lady Youngkin have led around the state. Narcan is a commonly used drug to counteract a fentanyl overdose.
Recent legislative efforts to combat fentanyl abuse by Virignia’s General Assembly include a bill to allow people in recovery from substance abuse who’ve been convicted of certain crimes to be able to work in treatment centers and a bill targeting fentanyl manufacturers. Both measures succeeded in the House and Senate and were signed by Youngkin.
While there has been bipartisan work to combat fentanyl issues in Virginia, Youngkin has his eye on a proposal to create a felony homicide criminal penalty for dealers whose drugs lead to a fatal overdose, regardless of whether or not it was accidental. Some Democrats had pushed back on the idea over the concern that it could go “too far” to charge people distributing drugs that they don’t know contain fentanyl.
“I will put it forward again, and we will do everything we can to get this bill passed,” Youngkin told members of the media Tuesday.
Jill Chicowicz is pleased to see various efforts that help bolster her nonprofit organization’s mission. After losing her twin brother to an accidental overdose in 2017, she founded 2 End The Stigma and worked to raise awareness about fentanyl. Her brother Scott Zebrowski had been prescribed opioids after an injury that led to the addiction that ended his life.
Now, she said that she talks with her teenage sons about the dangers of black market drugs and the risks of addiction. She said she’s pleased to see the Youngkin administration and lawmakers do their part to help families be less likely to experience a tragedy like hers.
“I always tell parents, ‘Open the dialog. Talk to your children. Don’t be scared,’” she said. “It is an awkward conversation. It’s more awkward to bury them.”
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