USA First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff

Dear First Lady Cecilia Abbott,
My name is Stefanie Turner. Tucker Charles Roe came into this world as a perfect,
beautiful boy on March 11, 2002. He loved his friends and family as well as animals
and nature. To know Tucker was to know love because loving others is what he did so
well. He was a deep thinker with a brilliant mind as well as an encourager to all,
especially the underdog. He was the oldest of four, and a proud brother to three
adoring younger sisters.
Tucker’s first experience with fentanyl was unbeknownst to him and offered by a peer
as a “Xanax” pill at a New Year’s Eve party in 2021; three months prior to his 19th
birthday. Fortunately, he and I shared a close relationship, and he told me about this
experience after returning home from the party.
At the time, I didn’t know anything about fentanyl and neither did he, and I simply
advised him to not take others’ medication again. But what I couldn’t share with him
were the facts on fentanyl, and the extremely addictive properties and its lethal effects.
What I also didn’t know is how the brain responds to fentanyl and the massive dump of
dopamine (feel good chemical) that it creates when it enters the body.
I would have never imagined that this would be the beginning of the end as nothing
else would help Tucker’s brain feel relief from the everyday stressors of life like he’d
experienced that night.
Tucker struggled and we, as his family, struggled to know the best way to help him.
What I now know could’ve saved my son’s life, but in January 2021, there was very
little awareness on fentanyl and its deadly effects.
That summer, Tucker successfully completed a treatment program and was gracefully
walking the road of sobriety. He was working full-time, training with his father for his
first triathlon, and I was starting to feel like we were coming out of the hard times
experienced earlier that year.
Unfortunately, two days before his triathlon would be the last time I’d see Tucker alive.
He’d stopped by to visit, and I sent him home with dinner & snacks to ensure he was
prepared for his race. After visiting that evening, he left our house and purchased two
illicit “Percocet” pills from a peer on social media. After arriving at his home, he took
one pill, and 12 hours later I found myself screaming and processing the most painful
loss any parent could imagine, the loss of their child; my 19-year-old son was gone.
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