Walk for Lives

09/29/2026

by Paul Martin

Prince. Tom Petty. Mac Miller. Now Hayden Panettiere. And last week, Cindy Crawford’s 27-year-old son, Presley Ge**er, died in what police are investigating as a suspected overdose.

Their deaths are tragic. Because unlike grief that follows an expected fatality, traumatic grief is different. It follows an event such as a death that is sudden, unexpected, or violent. The shock leaves survivors processing both the event itself and the trauma of how it happened, intensifying feelings of disbelief, fear, anger, and helplessness. The sudden death of a child can be particularly devastating because there is no opportunity to prepare or say goodbye.

The families of Hayden Panettiere and Presley Ge**er deserve every ounce of sympathy they receive.

But there is something about the attention that troubles me.

Approximately five hundred thousand Americans have been poisoned in the last decade by fentanyl. That means one million parents grieve the loss of their child. Add siblings and grandparents, it’s over five million.

Most of their names never made a headline...

(click below to read full post)

Stay up to date with the latest news about the fentanyl epidemic & its impact. United Against Fentanyl is a resource to fight the fentanyl crisis.

09/27/2026

Tonight at the Summit on Synthetic Drugs, we moved beyond headlines and into real conversation.

After our opening sessions, attendees broke into three focused discussions:
• From Crisis to Strategy
• Social Media & Youth Culture
• Diplomacy & Corruption

For nearly an hour, families, advocates, experts, and leaders leaned into difficult, necessary conversations about the synthetic drug crisis — not only what is happening, but what it will take to respond more effectively.

What made these breakout sessions so powerful was the mix of perspectives in the room.

There were professionals with experience in policy, treatment, law enforcement, technology, research, and international issues.

And there were families carrying something just as important: lived experience.

That combination matters.

Because this weekend was never meant to be only about gathering, remembering, or raising awareness.

It is about taking pain and turning it into purpose and ACTION!

It is about asking harder questions.

It is about learning from one another.

It is about bringing the people living this crisis into the same rooms as the people working on solutions.

And it is about continuing to show up after the weekend is over.

These were not surface-level conversations. They were honest, thoughtful, and necessary — the kind of conversations that can help move us from crisis toward strategy and from awareness toward action.

We are grateful to every speaker, family member, advocate, professional, and attendee who came willing to listen, share, challenge ideas, and learn from one another even our ones that joined us online.

This weekend may be coming to a close, but the work is not.

This is only the beginning.

To get plugged in to your state as a representative to make changes- Join our FFN Fentanyl Families Network fentanylfamiliesnetwork.org so you can get involved into our 5 pillars!

CONNECT • ADVOCATE • WALK • LEARN

ONE WEEKEND. ONE MISSION. ONE MOVEMENT.