Family who lost 2 sons to fentanyl overdoses 6 months apart fighting for laws to change

Drug poisoning is the leading cause of death for Americans 18-45, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid, is ravaging Georgia communities claiming the lives of more and more young people. Fentanyl is being mixed into pills, heroin, meth, even marijuana.

Prosecutors here in Georgia told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that local dealers are making tens of thousands of dollars a month. But they’re also facing harsher penalties as they leave families shattered.

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A local family who recently lost two sons to fentanyl overdoses just six months apart is calling on state and federal lawmakers to do everything possible to stop the flow of the deadly drug and crack down on local dealers.

In Washington, DC, hundreds of families devastated by the scourge of fentanyl, gathered at the Lost Voices of Fentanyl rally to share their grief and raise awareness on the deadly drug that is decimating their loved ones and communities, including many families from Georgia.

“He was a wonderful father of three girls. Always looked out for the underdog. He passed on July 16, 2022 of fentanyl poisoning from a package he ordered from China,” said Leah Dever, a mother of a fentanyl victim.

“We just got through church. I got a phone call from my son-in-law: ‘Jared’s dead.’ What kind of, I mean it’s 11 in the morning. What kind of news is that?” Mark Griffin said about losing his son to the drug.

Also, in the crowd was Carolyn McDermott and her daughter Andie. Their loved ones, Gannon and Max McDermott, brothers, died within months of one another from fentanyl.

The parents, Carolyn, a school nurse, and Lee, a teacher, say they did everything possible to warn their children about the dangers of drug abuse, especially fentanyl.

“They knew better than to ever touch it. And they still did,” Carolyn McDermott said.

They say Gannon first got hooked on prescription pain medications. But then began buying drugs on the street which contained fentanyl.

“Fentanyl changes the brain. Literally physically changes the brain. And it’s so addictive and so deadly that when it attaches to the brain. That’s all they think about. Gannon used to tell me, ‘I don’t want to do this, but I have to,’” Lee McDermott said.

“He used mostly late at night alone. He hated it. He was embarrassed of it. He was ashamed,” Carolyn McDermott said.

They say their son, a 22-year-old, a bright, ambitious apprentice plumber, went to rehab twice, only to relapse after a year-long battle with opioid addiction.

“He came to us on December 9 of 2022. And he was dead November 10, 2023. That’s when we got the call that he died in a sober living house,” Carolyn McDermott said.

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While dealing with the loss of their older son, they struggled to help their young adopted son Max. The 19-year-old was also addicted to fentanyl.

“Max really got pumped up and agitated. He would start snapping and pulling his hair. And we found him face down one night and we had to call an ambulance,” Carolyn McDermott said.

Six months after his brother’s death, Max overdosed on fentanyl and died at a friend’s house.

“We’re still not even processing the death of my older biological son, and then it was the first day of summer. And then I get that,” Lee McDermott said.

Carolyn and Andie learned of Max’s death on a previous trip to Washington to meet with Sen. Jon Ossoff’s office on the fentanyl crisis. Instead of immediately flying home, the daughter urged her mother to wait.

“She said let’s go to the meeting. I said, ‘Are you serious right now?’ She goes, ‘Even more so,’” Carolyn McDermott said.

Last month, a man pleaded guilty to selling the deadly fentanyl to Gannon. Devin Wells, who the Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson described as a career drug dealer, got 40 years behind bars.

“What this does is show our community that we are serious about stopping this as much as we possibly can, but we need the help of the entire community. We need the schools to make our children aware We need parents to understand this is deadly and they could lose their child,” Austin-Gatson said.

The parents say they will join other families in the fight against fentanyl.

“We can only hope the politicians do what is right to stop the flow of it,” Lee McDermott said.

In April, Gov. Brian Kemp signed “Austin’s Law.” It gives prosecutors the legal tools to charge manufacturers and sellers of fentanyl with aggravated involuntary manslaughter for fentanyl overdose deaths.

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Dealer pleads guilty to trafficking fentanyl after 2 overdose within days of each other in Gwinnett Prosecutors say both victims had enough fentanyl in their systems to kill 10 adults.

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