Federal legislation introduced in memory of Alaskan lost to fentanyl

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaskan mom is taking her battle towards fentanyl to Washington D.C. this week as Sandy Snodgrass continues to advocate towards the lethal drug that killed her son in October of 2021.

Snodgrass labored alongside Alaska’s congressional delegation to introduce new federal laws named after her late son, Bruce Snodgrass.

“We simply should preserve pushing the notice,” Snodgrass mentioned from the nation’s capital on Wednesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski shared Bruce’s story on the Senate ground and defined how the 22-year-old was working in direction of restoration earlier than he died of an unintended fentanyl overdose.

This week, Murkowski launched “Bruce’s Regulation” which is aimed toward federal prevention and schooling across the drug. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California co-authored the invoice with Murkowski.

“I might encourage each member of the Senate to signal onto this laws,” Murkowski mentioned. “We acknowledge in Alaska this can be a drawback in our state, and we have now to acknowledge it in all of our 50 states.”

Federal laws is one thing Snodgrass by no means envisioned after the heartache of her son’s loss of life. Months after Bruce’s passing, she started to share his story, and the extra folks she informed, the extra compelled she felt act.

“If that is the explanation that my son died, then that’s one thing, that’s one thing, and I maintain on to that, and that helps me. Everybody grieves in their very own approach,” Snodgrass mentioned. “It seems by means of this advocacy is how I’m processing my grief, of my son, is to actually hope that different folks’s sons don’t die.”

Throughout her time in Washington, Snodgrass is sharing her story on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Household Summit on the Overdose Epidemic.

In 2021, the DEA issued its first public security alert in six years warning of counterfeit tablets containing fentanyl, and the drug administration mentioned a deadly dose of the drug can match on the tip of a pencil.

The DEA has additionally launched a “One Capsule Can Kill Marketing campaign” highlighting the faux tablets that disguise the fentanyl and mentioned 4 out of each 10 tablets seized include a probably lethal dose of the drug.

Seizures of the artificial opioid have risen 380% from 2018 to 2021 in Alaska, in accordance with DEA. Thus far in 2022, the DEA mentioned they’ve already seized extra fentanyl in Alaska than it did final 12 months.

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