The Daily Signal - He Lost His Son to Opioids. Now This Father Addresses the Crisis in America.

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

Over 100,000 Americans die each year from opioid overdoses. One of them was 21-year-old Garrett Holman. His father, Don Holman, has worked ceaselessly to educate the public about the scourge of opioids and how they affected his family. "This tragedy ripped our family apart," Holman says. "At this point in time, after losing my son, no matter what I accomplish or what I do, I don't feel like I'll ever win." "I can lose less if I can do something," he says. "It may be talking to you today, it may be testifying in front of Congress. It may be talking to my Uber driver on the way home and [finding] out that they have a child going through something, and I can share just something to encourage them or give them some guidance." Holman joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to share his family's story and tell you how you can help if someone in your life suffers from an opioid addiction. We also cover these stories: In a video address to Congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeals for more U.S. aid. President Joe Biden announces $800 million more in military assistance to Ukraine. For the first time in three years, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, March 17th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Doug Blair. The opioid crisis continues to rip through the country, touching the lives of millions of Americans. One of those Americans is Don Holman, who tragically lost his son to drugs. He joins the show to share his story and offer guidance to those who may know someone going through tough times. But before we get to Doug's conversation, let's hit our top stories of the day. And of course, I wanted to wish you all a happy St.

Patrick's Day. Hopefully you're wearing green. And if you live by a river that's dyed green or one of those fun things, I'm very jealous. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Congress Wednesday morning saying to President Joe Biden, you are the leader of your great nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace. Zelensky also referenced some of America's past attacks. He said, remember Pearl Harbor. The terror morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it. Remember September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001, when evil tried to turn U.S. cities into battlefields, when innocent people were attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it, and you could not stop it. Our country experiences the same, every day, right now,

at this moment. Zelensky also asked the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Following President Zelensky's speech to Congress, President Biden gave a response and announced an additional $800 million in military aid for Ukraine. The aid will include equipment such as 800 anti-aircraft systems and 9,000 anti-armor systems. Here's a clip of Biden's remarks via ABC News. The American people are answering President Zelensky's call for more help. more weapons for Ukraine to defendants of more tools to fight Russian aggression.

Though the president did pledge to provide more military aid, he said that direct military action was currently not planned. In addition to the military aid, Biden said that the humanitarian aid America was providing to Ukraine would continue. We're going to continue to mobilize humanitarian relief to support people within Ukraine and those have been forced to flee Ukraine. In just the past few weeks we provided $300 million of humanitarian assistance to the people in Ukraine and in neighboring countries. Tens of thousands of tons of food, water, medicine, and other basic supplies to support the people in need. The Federal Reserve is hiking the interest rate. In a statement, the Federal Open Markets Committee said, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic

hardship. The implications for the U.S. economy are highly uncertain. but in the near term, the invasion and related events are likely to create additional upward pressure on inflation and weigh on economic activity. The committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. With appropriate firming in the stance of monetary policy, the committee expects inflation to return to its 2% objective and the labor market to remain strong. In support of these goals, the committee decided to rate, the target range for the federal funds rate to one quarter to a half percent and anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate. This is the first time the Fed has hiked interest rates since December of 2018. It's expected that there will be more rate hikes this

year and next. Now stay tuned from my conversation with Don Holman, a father who lost his son to the opioid crisis. At the Heritage Foundation, we believe that every single policy issue discussed in D.C. tells a story. So we want to tell it well. On the Heritage Explains podcast, co-host Tim Decher and Michelle Cordero, take one policy issue a week, mix in a creative blend of clips, narration, and hard-hitting interviews to equip you on crucial issues in under 20 minutes. So get your story straight. Subscribe to Heritage Explains wherever you listen to podcast. My guest today is Don Holman, a father who's family, was affected by fentanyl and the opioid crisis.

Don, I really appreciate you coming here to share your story with us today. Oh, thank you for having me. Now, before we talk about your personal experience with fentanyl and how horrible this drug is, I think it's worth going into maybe what this drug is for our listeners who aren't aware. So what exactly is fentanyl? Yeah, that's a great start. A lot of people don't do that. We hear the word in the media.

We may hear it or read it somewhere. Fentanyl's terrible. You know, I have some definitions I pull. up, but I think maybe just, you know, going off the top of my head, you know, there's statistics on how strong this is. Fentanyl is a, it's for pain relief, you know, so if you go to the hospital and there's, and it's for extreme pain relief. However, unlike morphine, you know, morphine is derived from opium, you know, for the opium plant, so this is all natural. Fentanyl is a synthetic, you know, synthetic is chemicals that duplicate the effects of something natural. So if you

look at the definition of synthetic, you know, fintinol is a synthetic, you know, synthetic, you know, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. There's other synthetics that are not fentanyl. Fentanyl is extremely concentrated. So let's think of sugar. You know, we've got sugar we put in our coffee, but then we use sweetener. You know, it's much more concentrated, much more powerful.

Right. So as we go through fentanyl, car fentanyl, I mean, it doesn't matter the numbers. They're stronger. They actually relieve pain. So let's talk about what fentanyl does to a person to relieve the pain, right? It attacks the opioid receptors in the brain, and it tells the body to relax and slow down.

too much of an opioid, whether it's fentanyl, whether it's morphine, heroin, it will actually tell the brain to really relax, slow down, stop the lungs from breathing. And that's called an overdose, and that's how you die from an overdose of fentanyl. So fentanyl being so concentrated is not something that you may purchase alone. You know, it's, I refer to it as a condiment. You know, what they're doing is they're either putting it in illicit drugs, artificial, let's say Xanax. Right.

They have the ability to take material, mix it with a little bit of fentanyl, press it into a Xanax bar. So a friend, someone on the street sells it to, you think a kid, let's say kids that are just invincible, you know, purchase something or given a Xanax. It happens to not be a Xanax. It's a fentanyl-l-laced artificial Xanax. The potency and the strength of the fentanyl within that drug can kill them the first time. It will put them to sleep. Their breathing will go shallow, and then it'll stop. And that's what you'll hear.

When you hear the word overdose from fentanyl, someone goes to sleep and they don't wake up. I think not to talk too much and carry it too far, you know, Narcan. For those of you that heard that word, what is Narcan? I don't know. Narcan simply administered will immediately release the opioids from the brain, the receptors in the brain, and a person will come back. The brain says, uh-oh, we went too far. You know, it's come back, you know, so it will save a life.

So as we talk about synthetic opioids, fentanyl, we have to talk about that. Definitely. And I would like to talk about Narcan, I think, a little bit later in this interview. But first off, your story, when I heard it, was absolutely heartbreaking. And I was wondering if you would be able to share how fentanyl specifically impacted your family. Okay. Yeah. And I'll change a little bit of this. Remember when I said synthetic, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. There are other synthetics. You know, my son's story, Garrett, started in 2016 late that year. He discovered that if he went online, Yeah, this is five years ago, keep in mind.

He could go online to a website. He could order a synthetic opioid. It was U-S.4-770-0. You can search that today, and you'll find websites. It was ordered online. It came through the mail, delivered by the postal service to the house. And this was a powder. So he actually, someone told him, if you actually, if you use this and you get drug tested, it won't show up.

So that's what he heard. purchased on the internet. So as a parent, you know, of course, I'm an expert now, unfortunately. Back then, it was like, well, he ordered it online. You know, it came in the mail. He had an argument that it just relaxed him and it was not a big deal. So, you know, the red flag doesn't necessarily come up, either you're saying, are you sure this is something you want to do or you should be doing? So it wasn't until the first overdose, which was in December of 2016. And I didn't know anything. I didn't know how to give CPR the emergency responder. actually taught me through it and they came.

And at that point, they administered Narcan. So it was through that that we got him into treatment for 30 days, came out, had one more overdose. And then the third overdose in February night, he was not in the apartment. I was not available to find him until after he was gone. So that's the heartbreaking story of my son Garrett, where he discovered this synthetic opioid. It wasn't as strong as fentanyl. So keep in mind, today, five years later, it's a, It's a different story.

Now, if we back up before that, November, Garrett, the day before him and I went to the gym, he played basketball while I worked out. You know, we did normal things up until that point. He was a good-looking kid. He had, you know, had a girlfriend. He, you know, up until that point, seeing him, he could come in here and talk to you just like I'm talking to you. He could convince you probably that he was smarter than both of us, strong-minded, you know, and it's just misinformation, you know, social media, friends, peers, and.

and stepping into something that I had a chance. I had three chances to save him. You know, fentanyl. You may not get that second chance. It may be one time, one person takes one pill and they're gone, and there's no second chance to say you should have done something else. Well, Don, I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you.

Your family is in our prayers and in our thoughts, but I think that's so fascinated to me is that there were three chances that this could happen. Is this an addictive drug that somebody maybe kind of takes, and then they can't stop and they need assistance to get off of it? I'm thinking, as you said that, there are so many different ways I can answer that. You know, we can actually step back from the fentanyl and talk about opioids, you know, because fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. So, yes, it is addictive.

It's addictive, and I'm not talking from someone with experience. I'm talking from someone who's talked to other people. You know, so let's take a less strong opioid, you know, that's, you know, oxycott and and percocet. You know, so we talk about, most people don't walk out and say, hey, I'm going to shoot up heroin today, or I'm going to take an opioid. You know, you go through a path to get there. But it may be anxiety, depression.

It may be, you know, and a lot of times with young people these days, you know, think about what they're exposed to, 24-7 with the phone. You know, they don't just go to school and maybe get bullied or harassed. You know, it's, there's things that go on that lead them to want to do something else. You know, quite honestly, a lot of them may start smoking marijuana and then transition to something else. but it doesn't have to be that way. It could be you this afternoon going to get your wisdom tea taken out.

You have surgery. Your oral surgeon prescribes you a pain killer. And maybe you're not aware of what's going on. So, you know, you take one, you take two. They give you 30. You take them, you know, the whole bottle. All of a sudden, some time during that process, the physical pain is not why you're taking them.

What I understand is you get a sense of euphoria. You know, it makes you feel better emotionally. So think about, you know, you go. through, you know, no pain physically, emotionally, and all of a sudden you stop taking them. But then there's that desire and that drive to continue. Right. So you reach out to friends. Hey, you got any, any painkillers you're not using, you know, trying to be subtle. And that just goes downhill to the point where you may find out you can find something online that comes from China. Oh, it'll do the same thing, you know,

and then maybe you want something stronger. You know, you either fentanyl, heroin, heroin is a less expensive substitute to give you that same feeling. So sometimes when you see that person who's in recovery or in treatment, we'll say treatment or pre-treatment, they didn't get there with a conscious decision to say, hey, I want to take these drugs. So there's multiple paths to that. You know, my son, it wasn't that. It was marijuana and it was getting in trouble legally. You know, so the judicial system has a place that they can actually do better. Right. You know, I personally think that prisons and jails should be the biggest treatment facilities we have.

You know, let's treat them for mental health. Let's treat them for substance abuse. Let's let them actually rehabilitate and come out with a chance to move forward. You mentioned that Garrett got these drugs in the mail and the postal service would drop them off at your house. Yes. That seems so strange to me that this would be, we know, obviously, having seen the experience that your family went through that these are dangerous materials. Right. How does the Postal Service, or have you, I would you know how the Postal Service is justifying delivering these items?

Well, it's a needle in a haystack. You think about it. All this mail comes in, the only way to detect these substances in the mail are the dogs that they train, the drug sniffing dogs. So, you know, you've got, you've got a pile of mail. And keep in mind, this is small concentrated quantities. So it came in a padded envelope. Could have been a hard drive, I mean a flash drive or something. You know, it was a little bigger than an envelope.

but it was a padded envelope. It did have a, I have found one with the Chinese return address, one was New York, and one was Canada. And if they're, yes, if they catch them, then let's say they do find them. Let's say they do find an envelope. Well, CBP will actually track that. They have a processing center. They have algorithms.

They run and they target certain locations to see if there's, you know, packages coming from one place more than the other and so forth. So there is a process in place, but it's really hard, you know, to narrow it. You can't get it all. We'll never, ever stop it all, whether it's the Postal Service or whether it's coming in the southern border with, you know, humans bringing it in. Right, right. Now, I don't want to get too personal, obviously, but in the aftermath of this tragedy,

how did your family use that pain to sort of work and to make the world a better place? because, I mean, obviously, you've got so much information about these drugs and you're spreading the news, but what have you used that tragedy to... This tragedy ripped our family apart. You know, my wife and I are divorced now. My daughter, she struggled with the loss of her brother. We all went different ways, and that happens a lot. You know, some families come together and do better. You know, for me, it became a mission of all of a sudden, you know, I say this a lot.

I get criticized, but, you know, at this point in time, after losing my son, no matter what I accomplish or what I do, I don't. I don't feel like I'll ever win. I can lose less. If I can do something, and it may be talking to you today, it may be testifying in front of Congress, it may be talking to my Uber driver on the way home and find out that they have a child going through something,

and I can share just something to encourage them or give them some guidance. So it doesn't really matter where it's at. So, yes, it doesn't stop. It's always there. You know, you learn to stand up straight. You know, the pain in your gut is always there, but you learn to live with it.

And everybody deals with grief differently, and everybody deals with the loss of a child differently. I have other parents. I have several dads I'm close to. They're kind of the same place as I am. And it's, you know, it's, you know, some parents just grieve the loss of a child. They go into a dark place and it's painful. I have that too, you know, but I separate that out in times like this to say,

how can I use this to do something different? You know, in the funeral home when I saw my son, I got so angry. I just, I ended up in the emergency room, but. The point was this is unacceptable. This 21-year-old kid, you know, laying in here is unacceptable. And then to order synthetic opioids from another country and have them come in the mail, you know, for me was a national security issue. Right.

And that was five years ago. And in the meeting we just came out of, that was brought up also with the fentanyl. So keep in mind, it's escalated. You know, 72,000 deaths in 2017. We're at 100,000 deaths now. You know, the fentanyl network of production and distribution, much more sophisticated than just putting an envelope in the mail. Right.

You know, so my opinion, I know I transition a lot to solutions. Right. You know, I can go back and talk about Garrett. It's hard. He's in my heart every day. Sure. You know, he probably drives a lot of what I do, and I blame him for some things. But we have to look forward, you know.

What's the next, you know, five years ago, did we know that we? we were going to have fentanyl coming through the southern border. If we had, maybe we could have prevented that while we were slowing down, you know, the mail delivery of these, this point. That came up in the meeting too. Poison. This is not drug abuse. This is poison, you know, that's being put into counterfeit drugs or existing drugs. And so if you think of it as a poison, you know, it just really has no medicinal benefit other than in a medical facility being used for, you know, ironically, I lost my mom in March.

last year. She had colitis, very painful, very painful in a short period of time. And the final thing they gave it was fentanyl. And I just said, wow, you know, there was the one time where I saw, okay, personally, I want her to have it because I want to try to alleviate the pain. But other than that, it's poison. Right. No, I'm really glad you shared that story because to share a personal anecdote myself, my grandmother recently passed away. Oh, I'm sorry. And she also was given a fentanyl patch to deal with the pain afterwards. And for me, hearing that phrase, fentanyl patch, as like a medical professional was suggesting

to give this to a person, it was so odd to me. Is there any positive to this drug? Or is it... Right. I guess I don't know. Is that some part of the solution here that we just ban it entirely?

Or is there a solution that it needs to be very specifically given to people for treatment? I mean, I think you have to look at, you know, what we're talking about. We're talking about fentanyl that's used in the situation you and I described in the hospital, you know, I think it's, I think I would be hypocritical if I said we should ban it all.

Because we talk about the, I know this was brought up also, the temporary scheduling ban on fentanyl analogs. And I can, you know, elaborate on that in the future also. But I think just because something can be abused, maybe we don't, we have to be a little bit open-minded on areas where it can be used. Because once again, when we talk about pain relief, you know, there's a whole community of chronic pain, you know, people that are struggling. And honestly, when you start talking about eliminated opioid pain, pain relief options, some people are very affected. Day-to-day pain can be excruciating. You know, the problem is trying to, for me, and I respect and appreciate,

and I'm compassionate to anybody struggling with chronic pain. But as I mentioned before, my understanding is that, you know, you can actually become addicted to opioids because of the mental relief you get. So how do you actually diagnose that, you know, my ankle feels about? better now. I don't need it, but my head still craves it. And I actually spoke years ago to a group of senior individuals, and there was a guy in there who got very interested in what I was talking about, and he said, you know, I have chronic pain. I forgot how old he was. Doesn't matter if I get addicted. I had no answer for him because I don't know. I mean, if your pain is so excruciating

and you feel like that, you know, you can't function and it's your towards the end of your life, Am I going to say, no, we don't want you to become addicted. So I think black and white doesn't always apply, and we have to be a little bit more. We have to listen. Sure. Now, as we wrap up, I want to end this on a hopeful note because I do think that that's important to come away with some sort of sense of there is a way that we can help with this. Because if we just kind of stay in the swamp and we're in the morass of depression and all that stuff, then this doesn't get fixed. Right.

So what do you think would be a good step for either the American people, state governments, federal governments to take to address this crisis? Okay, all of the above. All of the above. We all have to come together on all the aspects. We talk about prevention. We talk about enforcement and we talk about treatment and recovery. That's a common theme. So prevention is very important.

It's not the most – you're not going to get the biggest return. So I think schools, starting at a very young age, talk to your 10-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year-old, parents. parents need educated so they know how to understand where their kids are. We need to listen to kids. Let's listen to kids on that aspect. You know, on the enforcement side, you know, 100% we need to control the southern border, but we also need to look forward to see what that next path is that's going to bring drugs into our communities, and we continue to cramp down on that.

And then once again, treatment and recovery, that's not going to be handled at the federal level. It's going to be handled at the state or local level. You know, there's funding. There's grant money that goes down from the federal level, down to the federal level, state and local. Let's have an ROI, return on investment. What are we doing with that money? Let's monitor where that money is going and what we're doing. And then finally, the biggest challenge to this whole epidemic is stigma. You know, people don't want to talk about it. They're afraid to talk about it. You're in a community. You're with your friends, your neighbors. And there's

that one child that everybody knows it's struggling. Nobody talks about it. The parents don't want to talk about it. Make it okay to talk about it. Make it okay to say something that might actually not make you look like you're on top of the world. It's okay, you know, because when you're at the bottom, anywhere up looks good. Right. Now, finally, I actually do, we mentioned this at the very beginning is Narcan. If you could briefly explain what Narcan is, if there are resources for people to get Narcan just in case they notice something in their lives that might require it, where should they go? What should they do with it? 100%. Asked the question. I didn't know what it was. You know, when I lost my son overdosed the first time, I thought I lost him then. When I got to the

ICU, he was already, you know, his color came back and so forth. So, so Narcan has been around a long time. I will almost say every pharmacy, anybody can walk into any pharmacy in the United States of America and purchase Narcan from the pharmacist under a blanket prescription. It is a prescription required. So we can have it. You know, we could carry Narcan. If you know somebody who is at risk of overdosing, or even if you're, I mean, I really think they should provide that with any certain quantities of prescription opioids. So any accidents can happen. You know, Narcan, the most common form is a nasal application.

So if somebody is actually overdosed, if we go into a McDonald's bathroom, you see somebody that's overdosed, you can actually shoot Narcan in their nose, and they'll wake up. Now get them treatment, you know, understand. Now, the downside of that. Some people worry about liability and so forth. I mean, personally, I don't care. If they're having a heart attack, it's not going to help them.

but if they're having an overdose, it will. So be willing to help somebody understand, you know, how can work. There are organizations that actually provide training, free Narcan, you know, seek it out. I've even seen Billboard's in D.C. promoting Narcan. It's one of those things that can save a life. Funding shouldn't stop it. You know, first responders should all carry it, police, fire, and rescue. And citizens, you know, you can carry it.

I used to carry it until I gave it to somebody who was having, an issue with a family member, and I want to be sure they had some. Right. So I don't know if that helps explain. And if another thing, fentanyl, Narcan, fentanyl analogs. If we haven't, if we've mentioned anything here that anybody heard, go online and look it up. You know, educate yourself and what we're talking about. Don't rely on Don to tell you or Doug to tell you.

You know, educate yourself and understand it. Don't just check a box. Right. No, I think that's really good advice. I'm very glad that you shared that. That was Don Holman, a father whose family was deeply affected by, the opioid crisis, fentanyl, and other drugs like that. Don, I am so sorry for your loss, but I really appreciate you coming here to share your story, to let our listeners know some solutions,

some resources that they can use if they see that in their own lives, and I wish you the very best of luck. Well, thank you. Thank you for getting, you're talking about it also, and keep in mind, this is Don's opinion. This is my opinion. You know, it's everybody needs to make their own decisions on everything. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening. the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all tomorrow

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