Latest / The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show / Nation States: A Father's 12 Days of Fentanyl

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Nation States: A Father's 12 Days of Fentanyl · The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Nation States with Yates. I'm Steve Yates, your host,
0:05
Speaker 1: here trying to serve as your personal national security advisor
0:09
Speaker 1: to help you engage in the meaningful conversations about issues
0:13
Speaker 1: that affect the fate of our nation state. One of
0:15
Speaker 1: them is fentanyl. It's something that has hit near and
0:19
Speaker 1: dear to my family, as I've shared on this program before,
0:23
Speaker 1: but many, many other American families have gone through a
0:27
Speaker 1: similar experience. And today, I wanted to share the beginning
0:32
Speaker 1: of a two-part series. One, the personal story. We'll share
0:37
Speaker 1: what it was like for me and my family going
0:40
Speaker 1: through the experience with our first encounter with what would
0:44
Speaker 1: be the end stages of my daughter's life. It was
0:48
Speaker 1: a compelling experience to go through, to say the least,
0:52
Speaker 1: and it's at this time of year that we went
0:54
Speaker 1: through it, so it's top of mind. But it's also
0:57
Speaker 1: top of mind for any informed voter Because as you
1:01
Speaker 1: prepare to go to vote on the midterm elections day,
1:05
Speaker 1: this set of policies very much is in play. So
1:09
Speaker 1: we're going to have a two-part series. One, the personal
1:12
Speaker 1: journey and story. And then part two of this special series,
1:16
Speaker 1: we'll look at the family lessons learned that your family
1:20
Speaker 1: might want to consider about important conversations that you should
1:23
Speaker 1: be having. And then the policy lessons learned that when
1:27
Speaker 1: you're talking to those who seek to govern us, you
1:31
Speaker 1: are equipped with the right kinds of questions, the right
1:34
Speaker 1: set of data, the right issues to engage in something
1:38
Speaker 1: that hopefully heals and solves and prevents this scourge from continuing.
1:43
Speaker 1: And of course, in the end result, we want those
1:45
Speaker 1: we elect to hold those responsible for bringing this death
1:49
Speaker 1: into our families and our communities and our nation to
1:52
Speaker 1: be held accountable and for it to stop. So with that,
1:55
Speaker 1: please stick with us through this brief break. We'll take
1:57
Speaker 1: today's deep dive into into my family's 12-day journey of fentanyl.
2:04
Speaker 1: Stay with us. Welcome back to Nation States with Yates.
2:07
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for coming along for what
2:10
Speaker 1: I hope is a meaningful conversation. Today is going to
2:13
Speaker 1: be a little bit different from our usual style. I'm
2:15
Speaker 1: just going to share what my personal story was in
2:19
Speaker 1: going through what I call the 12 days of fentanyl,
2:22
Speaker 1: something that I hope your family has not had to
2:24
Speaker 1: go through. But I know, sadly, that many hundreds of
2:27
Speaker 1: thousands of American families have. I want them to know
2:31
Speaker 1: that they have been seen, heard, and felt in the communities,
2:34
Speaker 1: that there isn't a stigma that is attached to having
2:37
Speaker 1: to go through this kind of an experience, and that
2:40
Speaker 1: we united, whether you've gone through it, a loved one
2:43
Speaker 1: has gone through it, or your friends and neighbors have
2:46
Speaker 1: gone through it. No matter what, we are all engaged
2:49
Speaker 1: in the fight to make sure that it stops and
2:52
Speaker 1: that we care for those that have been affected by it.
2:54
Speaker 1: So with that, want to begin telling the story about
2:58
Speaker 1: October 18, 2023. My family, we shared a little bit before,
3:04
Speaker 1: had two children, both of whom were adopted, and we
3:08
Speaker 1: raised them in a fairly conventional way. We might be
3:13
Speaker 1: a unique combo of people in terms of coming from
3:17
Speaker 1: different parents, in terms of birth parents. We learn these
3:20
Speaker 1: languages when you're a blended adoptive family. But We did
3:25
Speaker 1: all we could to try to teach and guide and
3:29
Speaker 1: raise happy, healthy kids. They came with their own sets
3:35
Speaker 1: of bells and whistles along the way. My daughter was
3:38
Speaker 1: one of those that was just filled with energy from
3:40
Speaker 1: the get-go. She also, it could be told really early
3:45
Speaker 1: in life, seemed to have some things that were in
3:50
Speaker 1: her nature, not necessarily the nurture part of that equation.
3:55
Speaker 1: And it became very acute when she became a teenager.
3:59
Speaker 1: And so we dealt with early on what the challenges
4:03
Speaker 1: of the addiction challenge could be for a family. We
4:09
Speaker 1: sort of are raised from time to time to think
4:11
Speaker 1: that it's learned or taught. It's something that if you
4:16
Speaker 1: are not careful, you might be a little too permissive about.
4:19
Speaker 1: We were pretty much on guard about these things, but
4:24
Speaker 1: my daughter began to run in circles that flew close
4:27
Speaker 1: to the sun, I would say. But this is the
4:31
Speaker 1: prologue to what came on October 18th. I had worked
4:36
Speaker 1: with my daughter for years to try to get her healthy,
4:40
Speaker 1: to try to get her clean, and we did from
4:43
Speaker 1: time to time. But In 2023, we had some of
4:48
Speaker 1: our highest highs and some of our lowest lows. But
4:51
Speaker 1: it's the evening of October 18, 2023, where I was
4:55
Speaker 1: sitting at home with my wife, relaxing, watching television, waiting
4:59
Speaker 1: and thinking I would probably get a text from my
5:01
Speaker 1: daughter asking for some money for food or other necessities.
5:06
Speaker 1: And I would continue to try to encourage her to
5:08
Speaker 1: come home to the apartment that I had provided for her.
5:12
Speaker 1: She's not a small child. She's 24 years old. So
5:15
Speaker 1: an adult child, still dependent, but wanting to be independent.
5:20
Speaker 1: But I got the call that I certainly had feared
5:23
Speaker 1: for a long time and dreaded as a father. And
5:26
Speaker 1: it was from the trauma center of an emergency room
5:30
Speaker 1: in our area. The person on the other end of
5:33
Speaker 1: the phone asked for me to identify myself to make
5:36
Speaker 1: sure they were talking to the right person. You always
5:39
Speaker 1: worry about calls like that. Is it a scam? get
5:42
Speaker 1: through that part, and they start asking me whether I
5:45
Speaker 1: can help identify a Jane Doe that they are caring for.
5:50
Speaker 1: And so as we began to talk about her and
5:53
Speaker 1: they knew from medical records, it likely was my daughter
5:57
Speaker 1: and in fact was my Christina Marie. We were able
6:01
Speaker 1: to quickly then get to, well, what happened and how
6:05
Speaker 1: is she? And they were very, very honest with me
6:08
Speaker 1: that the situation was pretty dire. that she had overdosed.
6:15
Speaker 1: They knew that fentanyl was involved, but they were waiting
6:18
Speaker 1: to get a clearer sense of what mix of things
6:22
Speaker 1: had affected her. There was a law enforcement part of
6:25
Speaker 1: it because the police were called along with the ambulance
6:29
Speaker 1: because it was an overdose. And there is a special
6:33
Speaker 1: set of circumstances around that that we'll talk through in
6:36
Speaker 1: the lessons learned part of our conversation. But for now,
6:40
Speaker 1: the family journey. We get the call. I drop everything.
6:45
Speaker 1: My wife drives me to the emergency room. We go
6:50
Speaker 1: to try to learn more. I'm making phone calls to
6:54
Speaker 1: other family members to let them know what seems to
6:57
Speaker 1: be unfolding. What we don't know is greater than what
7:00
Speaker 1: we do know. And for most of the rest of
7:03
Speaker 1: October 18th, we are waiting anxiously to learn what really
7:09
Speaker 1: has happened. Fentanyl is no longer just something that I
7:13
Speaker 1: have campaigned against as a policy expert, but now it
7:18
Speaker 1: has struck a member of my family, and I don't
7:22
Speaker 1: yet know what the consequences are. We make it through
7:26
Speaker 1: October 18th. We get into the next day where we're
7:31
Speaker 1: meeting with doctors. We're moved from the trauma center to
7:34
Speaker 1: the intensive care unit very, very early hours of the morning.
7:38
Speaker 1: And we're starting to learn about oxygen deprivation. Now, I'm
7:43
Speaker 1: looking at my daughter. She's tied to a whole bunch
7:47
Speaker 1: of machines, tubes. She has a machine that's helping her breathe.
7:52
Speaker 1: I'm hearing by way of the attending nurse and the
7:58
Speaker 1: hospital representative what law enforcement and the ambulance crew had shared,
8:04
Speaker 1: that she had essentially passed out at the apartment she'd
8:07
Speaker 1: been staying at, that she went into the bathroom, thought
8:11
Speaker 1: she was having an asthma attack. And instead it was
8:16
Speaker 1: what fentanyl does. It freezes your lungs. And so she
8:20
Speaker 1: was quickly unable to breathe, collapsed. The person that she
8:25
Speaker 1: was with in that apartment called emergency response. And the
8:30
Speaker 1: most important figure that we learned that night was passage
8:35
Speaker 1: of time when it exceeds 10 minutes and maybe even
8:38
Speaker 1: 15 minutes of oxygen being deprived of the brain that
8:43
Speaker 1: a great deal of swelling takes place. And so while
8:48
Speaker 1: the emergency response was able to resuscitate my daughter, in
8:52
Speaker 1: other words, make her be able to breathe with assistance
8:56
Speaker 1: to get a heartbeat going, she was not yet responsive
9:02
Speaker 1: to very many tests. They do tests to check for reflexes.
9:06
Speaker 1: No response. They will see whether your eyes move, part
9:11
Speaker 1: of those reflexes. No response. And so there was my daughter,
9:16
Speaker 1: physically present, but in essentially a coma. And this was
9:24
Speaker 1: the shock of one day talking to someone who were
9:29
Speaker 1: trying to rehabilitate and now looking at the physical presence
9:34
Speaker 1: of my daughter, but not completely present. We don't know
9:39
Speaker 1: what recovery is possible. We're talking with the neurological specialist,
9:44
Speaker 1: trying to understand if she regains consciousness, what that consciousness
9:49
Speaker 1: might be like. If she can recover, what does that
9:52
Speaker 1: path of recovery look like? How long before we know?
9:56
Speaker 1: And really, the best people in the business don't have
10:01
Speaker 1: great answers for you as a parent when you enter
10:04
Speaker 1: into this situation. You just know that your loved one
10:07
Speaker 1: is there. You're trying to talk to her as if
10:11
Speaker 1: she can see you, hear you, as if she's present
10:15
Speaker 1: in the room. And people who have been resuscitated come
10:19
Speaker 1: back with stories that say that they were aware of
10:22
Speaker 1: these things, that they had what we might think of
10:24
Speaker 1: as out-of-body experiences, being able to see who was with
10:28
Speaker 1: them or hear people trying to talk to them, and
10:31
Speaker 1: that they're trying to get into their body and answer,
10:35
Speaker 1: but it's not working out. Well, we just don't get
10:38
Speaker 1: the blessing of knowing whether that is the case for
10:42
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't come back. But for that moment, we
10:47
Speaker 1: just knew that we were in terrible situation, that my
10:51
Speaker 1: daughter had been deprived of oxygen to the brain for
10:55
Speaker 1: at least 10 minutes, probably longer, that if she would
10:59
Speaker 1: come back, that it would probably have been after a
11:03
Speaker 1: great deal of damage was done from the swelling of
11:05
Speaker 1: her brain, that she might not even recognize us and
11:09
Speaker 1: that she may never recognize us. And you don't know
11:13
Speaker 1: what to do. It's hard to know what to even think.
11:18
Speaker 1: those circumstances and so best we could do in that
11:23
Speaker 1: day was listen to the doctors they had to put
11:27
Speaker 1: her in a very cold environment so her body was
11:33
Speaker 1: essentially resting in what essentially would be like a cooler
11:38
Speaker 1: trying to take the temperature of her body down to
11:41
Speaker 1: reduce the aggressive swelling in her brain to minimize that
11:44
Speaker 1: damage and then wait and then rewarm her body so
11:49
Speaker 1: that they would be able to conduct tests to assess
11:53
Speaker 1: responsiveness and damage to the brain. It was on that
11:58
Speaker 1: second day when we began to get some indication of tests,
12:04
Speaker 1: but that's also when the police gave me a download
12:08
Speaker 1: of what happened at the scene. That's where we learned
12:12
Speaker 1: who was present That's also where we learned that no
12:15
Speaker 1: property was recovered, so we would never be able to
12:18
Speaker 1: get my daughter's phone, the computer that she had, her
12:23
Speaker 1: clothing and other belongings she would have had with her,
12:27
Speaker 1: none of her artwork. She was an artist, so none
12:30
Speaker 1: of her doodles or other kinds of things were available.
12:34
Speaker 1: Day three was when we finally had an MRI, and
12:39
Speaker 1: we were getting some indications from the doctor that that
12:45
Speaker 1: the tests showed that the damage likely was quite extensive.
12:51
Speaker 1: We started getting walked through what is the definition of
12:56
Speaker 1: brain death versus a coma. And I think what is
13:01
Speaker 1: not known about this is greater than what is known.
13:04
Speaker 1: Medical professionals will tell you better. I'm just sharing with
13:08
Speaker 1: you the story of what it's like to basically be
13:12
Speaker 1: spending every hour of every day staring into the image
13:19
Speaker 1: of your loved one, strapped into machines and tubes and
13:24
Speaker 1: getting all these tests, being cooled and reheated and trying
13:29
Speaker 1: to learn, is she in there? Can she come back?
13:35
Speaker 1: How did this happen? She had survived so much in
13:38
Speaker 1: her life. Because of the choices she had made, she
13:41
Speaker 1: had gone through periods of homelessness. She had gone without
13:46
Speaker 1: proper nutrition for times. She had chronic asthma and other
13:51
Speaker 1: kinds of things that were a challenge. And she seemed indestructible.
13:56
Speaker 1: But she appeared to have met the one thing that
14:01
Speaker 1: is a destroyer. So she had survived heroin and become
14:06
Speaker 1: clean from that. Her talk screen came back. saying that
14:09
Speaker 1: she did not have heroin in her system. She had
14:11
Speaker 1: other things, and she had ingested a Xanax pill that
14:16
Speaker 1: was laced with fentanyl. That is part of the personal
14:21
Speaker 1: lesson that is there for all families, that you think
14:24
Speaker 1: that this is just happening to addicts, and my daughter
14:28
Speaker 1: was a recovering and faltering addict. But the kind of
14:34
Speaker 1: pill that she ingested is something that a lot of
14:36
Speaker 1: people who are not addicts, would take. It's just an
14:40
Speaker 1: off-market Xanax mood management with a little extra boost that
14:46
Speaker 1: was not intended. So we learned what brought her there.
14:51
Speaker 1: We learned that the damage to her brain was extensive
14:56
Speaker 1: and that if she would recover, it probably would be
14:59
Speaker 1: a very, very long recovery and it might not be
15:02
Speaker 1: a very complete recovery. And we were told that that
15:07
Speaker 1: they would do a test every day where they would
15:08
Speaker 1: remove the tube from her chest. And she had failed
15:14
Speaker 1: multiple times to breathe on her own. So she seemed
15:19
Speaker 1: dependent on machines to stay alive. There was no meaningful
15:26
Speaker 1: brain activity, but she was not technically brain dead. And
15:31
Speaker 1: we were stuck in a quandary of, what possibly to
15:36
Speaker 1: do in this situation. We didn't have unlimited resources, but
15:42
Speaker 1: we did have some help along the way. And even
15:47
Speaker 1: with unlimited resources and unlimited health, you're still facing this
15:52
Speaker 1: brutal reality of no way of knowing what, if anything,
15:58
Speaker 1: could be done other than holding things as they are. Well,
16:04
Speaker 1: We had people approach us about whether she might be
16:11
Speaker 1: able to make a contribution to others, that our loss
16:15
Speaker 1: might be able to help others. And we had to
16:20
Speaker 1: make the decision at one point of, are we going
16:25
Speaker 1: to try to see whether she can live on her
16:28
Speaker 1: own or not? And we ultimately decided went down that road,
16:35
Speaker 1: and it seemed as though she was going to pass,
16:41
Speaker 1: but she was such a fighter that she didn't immediately pass.
16:45
Speaker 1: And once it was beyond the point of no return,
16:48
Speaker 1: she did begin to breathe on her own, but there
16:52
Speaker 1: was no other functionality and no further treatment beyond that point.
17:00
Speaker 1: This is what fentanyl does. It takes... your loved one's
17:04
Speaker 1: breath away. And if that breath comes back, there's nothing
17:09
Speaker 1: left for that breath to work with. And so for
17:13
Speaker 1: the better part of seven long days, we were with
17:18
Speaker 1: my daughter in hospice and we were talking, trying to
17:25
Speaker 1: comfort her. She was comforted medically, comforted by family being present,
17:32
Speaker 1: flying in from other parts of the country. Through all
17:37
Speaker 1: of this, my sister flew into town to help me
17:42
Speaker 1: be able to keep my head straight. I have been
17:45
Speaker 1: through a lot of different jobs where there's a lot
17:48
Speaker 1: of different things happening at once, should be able to
17:51
Speaker 1: keep cool under pressure and deal with tough decisions. This
17:55
Speaker 1: was more than I was prepared to handle, and I
17:57
Speaker 1: needed help, and my sister was there to help along
18:00
Speaker 1: with my wife. my mother and other members of family
18:05
Speaker 1: that were present. My first wife and Christina's mom came
18:11
Speaker 1: to town and was present for this journey too. We
18:15
Speaker 1: were all there in love as a family for this very,
18:19
Speaker 1: very important member of our family. My son had his
18:24
Speaker 1: own decisions to make going through this process. Ultimately, I
18:29
Speaker 1: can look him in the eye and say, I think
18:30
Speaker 1: he made the right decisions. He did not want his
18:35
Speaker 1: last memories of his sister to be those images. He
18:39
Speaker 1: had also shared with me his fears that she might
18:43
Speaker 1: one day relapse and this could happen. And we had
18:48
Speaker 1: worried together about that. And we had checked on her
18:52
Speaker 1: place through this whole process. And it was a lot.
18:58
Speaker 1: for a younger man to have on his shoulders. And
19:02
Speaker 1: it was tough. It's still tough. It's still tough for
19:04
Speaker 1: all of us. But John made his decisions and I
19:08
Speaker 1: respect the decisions that he made. And I think ultimately
19:11
Speaker 1: they were right for him in being able to hold
19:15
Speaker 1: on to the positive memories of his big sister rather
19:18
Speaker 1: than the images on those machines or what the journey
19:23
Speaker 1: through hospice is. Hospice is another worldly experience. And I
19:28
Speaker 1: hope that you find it in your families and communities
19:33
Speaker 1: means to support what these people do. It is a
19:36
Speaker 1: kind of care that is above and beyond extraordinary circumstances
19:42
Speaker 1: and people and families dealing with things that they can't
19:45
Speaker 1: kind of compute. And the quality of the way that
19:51
Speaker 1: they cared for my loved one and the way they
19:54
Speaker 1: dealt with us was truly incredible. But essentially, it made
20:00
Speaker 1: it so that whereas some families, they have the shock
20:04
Speaker 1: of a phone call that their loved one is gone
20:07
Speaker 1: and there is no chance in some cases to even
20:12
Speaker 1: be with their loved one. We had the opportunity to
20:16
Speaker 1: at least be present with Christina, to hold her hand,
20:22
Speaker 1: to feel the warmth of her body, to be able
20:25
Speaker 1: to talk at long lengths. When anyone who knew her
20:30
Speaker 1: knew that she talked back a lot, she couldn't talk back.
20:33
Speaker 1: And so we could actually have long conversations under those circumstances.
20:42
Speaker 1: We shared tender things. We shared that we wanted her
20:49
Speaker 1: to feel okay about us, that we would be strong
20:54
Speaker 1: for each other, that we would hold each other up
20:57
Speaker 1: and that she could be free of any guilt for
21:00
Speaker 1: what happened. We forgave her and then we hope she
21:03
Speaker 1: forgave us. We're able to share tender memories of happy
21:08
Speaker 1: times of the past. to share thoughts that we had
21:12
Speaker 1: along the way. Lots of stories when you have many
21:16
Speaker 1: days to sit by the side of your loved one
21:19
Speaker 1: and share. That's basically what the hospice journey was. We
21:26
Speaker 1: took turns being present in the room. Her mom had
21:30
Speaker 1: a chance to have her final conversations, to decorate the
21:35
Speaker 1: room with a collage of pictures that was truly beautiful.
21:40
Speaker 1: meant something that my wife was able to have some
21:44
Speaker 1: time to speak to her and say her goodbyes. And
21:49
Speaker 1: as her dad, the person who fought with her through
21:53
Speaker 1: the trenches of everything that recent years had bought, I
21:57
Speaker 1: was able to stay by her side and be present
22:03
Speaker 1: for her final breath. October 18, 2023 was her birthday.
22:10
Speaker 1: Final conscious breath. October 30th, 2023 was her final breath.
22:16
Speaker 1: In the wee hours, my one of a kind went
22:20
Speaker 1: to the beyond and we commended her spirit to our
22:23
Speaker 1: Father in Heaven. That's our personal story. You go through
22:28
Speaker 1: these things as an individual, as a father. You think
22:34
Speaker 1: of what it's like for the person it happens to,
22:38
Speaker 1: like my daughter. So many things go through your mind.
22:43
Speaker 1: The thing that's most important of all is that all
22:47
Speaker 1: of you know that there are people in your near
22:50
Speaker 1: abroad who have gone through this, are going through this,
22:56
Speaker 1: or with our collective effort, we can prevent from going
22:58
Speaker 1: through this. Let's take this as an opportunity to engage
23:04
Speaker 1: in the love and concern that is necessary to hold
23:08
Speaker 1: up those who are struggling. to recognize the weight that
23:12
Speaker 1: those parents are carrying, be there for them in every
23:16
Speaker 1: way we possibly can, and to really inform ourselves about
23:23
Speaker 1: what the moving parts in this are. And so with that,
23:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to take a brief break and come back
23:30
Speaker 1: with some parting thoughts about the personal journey of one father, me,
23:37
Speaker 1: our journey, going through 12 days of fentanyl and what
23:42
Speaker 1: I hope you are able to take away from this.
23:44
Speaker 1: So please stick with us through the break. Back in
23:46
Speaker 1: a moment. Welcome back to Nation States with Yates. Thank
23:52
Speaker 1: you very much for sticking with us for this somewhat
23:55
Speaker 1: different special episode about our personal journey in dealing with fentanyl.
24:00
Speaker 1: I call it the 12 days of fentanyl about my
24:03
Speaker 1: daughter's final journey and what I observed and went through
24:07
Speaker 1: as a father. through those 12 unbelievable days. This is
24:13
Speaker 1: to set up the conversation we'll have in part two
24:16
Speaker 1: about the family lessons learned and the policy lessons learned
24:21
Speaker 1: from all that we experienced, things that relate to how
24:25
Speaker 1: the hospital was dealing with things, what happened with emergency response,
24:29
Speaker 1: some unique things that I hadn't thought of before when
24:32
Speaker 1: dealing with the police under circumstances like this. but also
24:37
Speaker 1: what really, really matters in our public policy priorities, what
24:41
Speaker 1: we might want to be investing more in in order
24:45
Speaker 1: to try to hold up the parts of our system,
24:48
Speaker 1: whether it's the healthcare system, the criminal justice system, law
24:52
Speaker 1: enforcement system, and the institutions of our communities, whether it's
24:56
Speaker 1: churches and others that play a meaningful role in being
25:00
Speaker 1: able to uphold families and prevent this scourge, but also collectively,
25:06
Speaker 1: to pressure those that we elect to represent us to
25:09
Speaker 1: hold accountable those who are responsible for bringing this challenge
25:13
Speaker 1: into our lives. My hope is not that this is
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Speaker 1: a dwelling in what is genuinely sad and no way
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Speaker 1: around it. This is a profoundly sad experience for my
25:26
Speaker 1: family and hundreds of thousands of other families in America.
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Speaker 1: But the point isn't to dwell on that. The point
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Speaker 1: is to Speak for those who have suffered so that
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Speaker 1: others don't have to also. To feel the need for
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Speaker 1: change so that we'll actually take action instead of just
25:46
Speaker 1: sending hearts and prayers. We'll actually make change. We'll do
25:49
Speaker 1: the work. That's my hope in sharing this particular message.
25:53
Speaker 1: And also, not for nothing, in this season where people
25:56
Speaker 1: are asking for your vote to represent you in the
26:00
Speaker 1: United States Congress, be mindful of how important The approach
26:05
Speaker 1: that our government takes to this is to you, your family,
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Speaker 1: your community, and your state. And those issues and those
26:13
Speaker 1: policies very much are on the ballot. So more on
26:16
Speaker 1: that in our part two of this special series on fentanyl.
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Speaker 1: Please stick with us for that. I thank you for
26:23
Speaker 1: joining us for what I hope is a meaningful conversation
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Speaker 1: on this sensitive subject, one that really matters for the
26:29
Speaker 1: fate of our nation state. Until next time, I'm Steve Yates,
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Speaker 1: your host here at Nation States with Yates. Stay strong.