Four Arizona families who have lost loved ones to the fentanyl epidemic attended a summit on fentanyl held in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed the toll - both physical and emotional - that the fentanyl epidemic has taken on families and communities.
He said no amount of statistics can ever truly quantify the effects of the crisis:
”There are many staggering statistics in the fentanyl crisis,” he said, “but none of them adequately grasp the gravity of the loss.”
The CDC released a report Thursday that indicates deaths related to street drugs, like fentanyl, are declining in the U.S.
Garland will be leaving his position as the head of the Justice Department in January, when the new administration takes office.
But, he said, the loved ones who’ve been lost to the fentanyl epidemic will not be forgotten.
“We promise that we will carry your loved ones in our heart in our continued work to end the poisoning and overdose epidemic,” he said.
And even though numbers can never measure the real toll of losing someone to a drug epidemic, Garland said there’s one thing that can:
”[Numbers] do not capture the feeling you have told me about - the person missing at your dinner table.”
