Earlier tonight at Potomac Valley Church in Dumfries, a much needed discussion on how to solve the fentanyl crisis took place with the REVIVE! Narcan, or Naxolone, training session. Prior to the training, Senior Pastor Will Archer introduced the panel as they answered questions:

• Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham
• Potomac District Supervisor Andrea Bailey
• Virginia First Lady Suzanne Youngkin
• Virginia General Attorney Jason Miyares
• Drug Enforcement Agency Special Assistant Shane Todd

Newsham talked about the severity of the crisis in Prince William County. “This fentanyl poisoning in our community is real,” he said, “and don’t think for a moment it’s not.”

According to statistics, 8 out of 10 of the fatal overdoses in Virginia are because of fentanyl. “Around 70 people die each year within the area, and they look just like the people in this room,” said Newsham.

Bailey emphasized the necessity to dedicate resources to bring awareness to the county. “We were talking yesterday about this issue,” she said, “and fentanyl is a pandemic!”

“Not only in our county, but in our country,” she continued, “and it’s a serious issue which needs serious attention. It’s affecting everyone from different directions.”

Miyares, who introduced the ‘One Pill Can Kill’ campaign in November 2022 to combat the crisis, talked about the overall impact of the fentanyl pandemic. “We are in the midst of an invisible war that’s happening, and there are casualties, which are our children and some Virginia adults,” he said.

Earlier in the evening, he and Pastor Archer hosted a roundtable with several other local pastors, concerned citizens, and community leaders to create solutions to work together in solving the crisis.

Miyares brought up some startling numbers on the effects of the drug. “Last year,” he said, “there were 105,000 Americans of overdose addictions, and to put it in perspective, 50,000 Americans died within 12 years of the Vietnam War. It’s chemical warfare, and I tell my team all the time the way to fight bad information is with good information.”

First Lady Youngkin shared a personal story of how she and her husband Governor Youngkin lost someone they knew personally to fentanyl, and vowed to make stopping it a priority.

“We were not aware that it was in our streets and in our schools,” she said. “So when we set out this missional journey of serving Virginians, we noticed that 5 Virginians die every day because of fentanyl, and those numbers are going up. 1500 people died because of fentanyl, and it’s only getting worse.”

Bailey, asked if there’s enough resources to fight fentanyl within the county said, “Not yet. I was very fortunate to have our chief, and fire chief, along with 93 stakeholders to help address mental health in our area. Our county board had a unanimous vote to bring a Crisis Receiving Center to our community.”

“It’s not about politics at all,” she continued, “because if you heal the mind, you heal the land.”

DEA Special Assistant Shane Todd talked about some challenges they face in fighting the fentanyl crisis. “Stopping it from getting into Virginia because of the number of bad actors involved in trafficking,” he said, “we need more resources on the enforcement and prosecution side.”

He mentioned how traffickers use Snapchat, Instagram and how that can block the intersectionality of transactions because of their anonymity, making it more difficult to prosecute. In addition, another challenge would be the lack of assistance from other nations such as Mexico and China, who are some of the world’s biggest producers of fentanyl.

To find out more about the REVIVE! program, visit the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health website or the campaign’s website.