ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – First lady Suzanne Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares came to Roanoke to launch a new campaign to tackle the fentanyl and opioid crisis. It aims to bring awareness to the dangers of fentanyl.

The campaign is focusing on fentanyl prevention in Roanoke, because Roanoke has the highest concentration of overdose deaths of metropolitan areas in Virginia, according to the first lady.

“Families and communities are being rocked by fentanyl,” first lady Youngkin said.

The Virginia Department of Health reports more than 7,000 people in Virginia have died from a fentanyl overdose since 2020. That accounts for 75% of all overdoses during that time.

Deaths from fentanyl have increased 12% each year since 2020. In Virginia, among teens and young adults, more people died from fentanyl overdoses than car crashes in 2022.

In the Roanoke and Salem area, about 64 people die every year from an overdose.

Christine Wright is an overdose survivor and now works to help others in active recovery.

“I did not want to raise my hand and say when I grow up, I want to be a drug addict,” Wright said. “However that’s exactly what my reality became.”

Wright sees first hand how deadly fentanyl is, claiming at least 1,500 lives in Virginia every year, and how easy it is for young children to come in contact with it.

“I think you start age appropriate education and increase that knowledge as they increase in age,” Wright said. “It takes brutal honesty and vulnerability to really speak about the truth of the situation of addiction and fentanyl.”

The campaign, ‘It Only Takes One’, is about educating parents and caregivers on the deadly drug. Attorney General Miyares explained talking with your kids is the best prevention tool.

“Don’t just talk to your child about their school day or their favorite sports team, talk to them about this because it literally could save a life,” Attorney General Miyares said.

The campaign also provides prevention and recovery resources to schools and community partners. First lady Youngkin plans to work with Roanoke leaders once a month for the next six months to stop fentanyl from taking more lives.

“Bring it out in the open, tell people about the dangers and have more people come along with us on this journey of care and compassion so that we can turn those numbers around and make sure that fewer Virginians are dying of fentanyl,” first lady Youngkin said.

This awareness campaign is the first of its kind in Virginia, and while it’s starting in Roanoke, it’s message is going throughout the entire state.

The Virginia Department of Health is also working with this campaign to make life saving drugs, like naloxone and Narcan, available in the Commonwealth.

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