'Our children's murderers are sitting right there on their phones'
A quiet epidemic is sweeping the countryside — opioid overdoses, better known from the families of victims as fentanyl poisoning. In Minnesota alone, the numbers have more than tripled over ten years.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, there were 317 opioid-involved overdose deaths, but that number skyrockets to 1,031 in 2022 and 1,001 in 2023.
There are a few families that have bonded together here in southern Minnesota over the past few years in their grief of losing loved ones to fentanyl poisoning. One overall message that was important and consistent is that their loved ones didn’t ask to be addicted to these opioids, to fentanyl. Their loved ones tried very hard to not have the desire to need them.
They want to see the stigma around it disappear and for help to arrive for those that need it. They bonded together to bring that message to the surface and provide a no-questions asked help solution so that others potentially won’t have to face the same fate.
“They’re not an ‘at-risk’ population. It can affect anyone, anywhere,” said Malia Fox. “Right now, I feel like we are putting band-aids on it. We need to get to the root of it. We need to help those who are experiencing trauma or pain, anxiety or depression, we need to be helping them through things as opposed to medication.”
Malia Fox lost her son, Joshua Fox, to fentanyl poisoning when he was age 44. In talking to schools, Malia Fox says the most prevailing question she gets is, “How do we not start?”
Katie Tettam said, “A lot of people don’t know this, but their kids can go on Snapchat, order the stuff, and they will deliver it right to your house. They’ll find someone in the area that has it, and they’ll deliver it right to the house. We know one boy who told his dad, ‘Hey dad. I’m going out to get a book,’ and came back in from getting it and said, ‘Night dad. I love you. See you in the morning,’ and they found him on the floor the next morning. That’s in any town — smaller town, bigger town.”
Tettam said they use Snapchat because the messages disappear, but they will text, message on Facebook or TikTok, or any other means. Tettam lost her nephew, Travis Gustavson, when he acquired pills that contained fentanyl. He was just age 21.
“Our children’s murderers are sitting right on their phones,” said Kim Lang, Gustavson’s mother. “You make up excuses when there are signs, and there are signs. You come up with reasons of why your child behaves like that.”
Kate Sloan, who lost her son Nathan Kartak to fentanyl poisoning, said, “I didn’t realize you could get addicted to prescription pills, so I wasn’t so worried about it. But I would find prescription pills sometimes that belonged to somebody else.” When asked why she would think that she said, “Because it’s medicine. I trusted the doctors. I’m not one that even goes to the doctor. To me, meth is a drug. Heroine is a drug. Cocaine is a drug. Marijuana, you know, those are drugs. A pill is pretty innocuous.”
Tettum said, “If we can save one person, and actually, we had one shortly after, everybody in our area knows we have Narcan, and we’ll deliver it. All of Travis’ friends know, and one of his friends came over and said to Kim, ‘Hey do you have any Narcan?,’ and she’s like looking and she could tell, she’s like, ‘Oh you need it like now.’ So she walked him out and told him exactly how to use it, and then a little bit later she got a call from a police officer saying, ‘You should be proud. You saved a life tonight. It was enough to keep them alive until they got there.’”
A call to action
All four groups of loved ones that had lost someone to fentanyl poisoning shared a bond and met each other a few years ago. Sloan said, “I found strength through these people that are here. There is a bond here that is inexpressible.”
Through their tragedy comes strength and support, as well as determination to make sure other families don’t have to go through this.
A significant portion of this story has been left out here, as well as additional photos. Pick up a copy of the Montgomery Messenger at a newsstand today and subscribe online now to not miss any news in the future.
Portrayed on the box in Montgomery are images of each of the families’ loved ones and the words, “Stay safe out there,” which were the last words uttered by Sloan’s son to her before he passed.
For more information and links to resources regarding fentanyl poisoning, you can visit the foundation mentioned above at tjgfoundation-awareness.org.
Check out another article in this issue sharing more of each families’ stories of their loved ones who passed due to fentanyl poisoning.
Families offer life-saving help for others facing fentanyl poisoning
