Debra Frisk lost her 23-year-old son Keen to an accidental opioid overdose in 2022.
It was in the middle of the COVID pandemic. She said he’d been struggling with anxiety and depression.
The Augusta County mother said her son had come home after a day of being out with friends. The following day – just before the Super Bowl kickoff —Frisk found her son dead in his bedroom.
“Immediately, when I opened the door, I knew he was gone,” she said.
Keen had been planning to watch the game with his dad.
“My son did die from one pill that was given to him from a friend, and I have no way of knowing who it was,” Frisk said. Police are still investigating who provided her son with the fentanyl. “I can only hope and pray that in due time justice will be served.”
Keen was one of at least 2,144 people who died from an opioid overdose in Virginia in 2022 according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Frisk said her son was someone who “fought for the underdog.” She described him as a 6’2” “teddy bear” who was a source of strength for his friends when they were in need.
While Frisk said she’d spoken to her son about the dangers of taking pills, she didn’t know how lethal the opioid could be. “I wasn’t thinking it was going to happen to my son,” Fisk said.
Now, she works to help teach others around Augusta County about the risks of fentanyl.
Frisk joined two other women who’d also suffered the loss of a loved one to a drug overdose at a news conference marking a milestone on reducing opioid overdose deaths in Virginia.
On Tuesday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other members of the administration spoke at the event held at the Virginia Attorney General’s office in Richmond.
“Today is a moment to score our success and to challenge us to do more,” Youngkin said. He touted a 23% reduction in opioid overdose deaths over the past year and said Virginia has seen the third-largest drop in deaths related to fentanyl in the nation.
“What we are doing is working, but as you know the answer is not a percentage decline. It is to eradicate it, to crush it, to eliminate it,” he said. “It’s time to redouble our efforts.”
In 2023, Gov. Youngkin signed Executive Order 26, addressing opioid overdose deaths in the state which had hit a record high in 2021. “We purposely called it ‘crushing the fentanyl epidemic,’ not diminishing, not making a slight impact, but crushing it,” Youngkin said as he spoke about the efforts.
The administration has taken a multi-pronged approach to bringing down deaths; including increased law enforcement efforts, education and awareness campaigns, training the public on administering Naloxone, and stopping the flow of fentanyl into Virginia.
The legislature has passed laws defining fentanyl as a “weapon of terrorism” and the governor signed a different executive order requiring school administrators to notify all parents within 24 hours if a student dies from a drug overdose.
But the governor said more needs to be done to stop the manufacturing and distribution of the potentially deadly opioid. “We still battle the basic concept of holding an individual who knowingly distributes fentanyl, but results in a death accountable for a felony homicide,” Youngkin said.
He is asking the legislature to pass legislation penned by state sen. Ryan McDougle (R–Hanover) that would allow law enforcement to charge a person with a crime that’s punishable for up to 40 years in prison.
It was narrowly defeated in the state Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee during the 2024 General Assembly session.
“I think the policy difference that we’re encountering in committee here is, what’s the right way to attack this? And do we attack it the way we attacked things in the ‘90s?” Senate Democratic Leader Scott Surovell, who chairs the committee, told the Associated Press at the time.
Faythe Silveira also attended the Tuesday press conference. In 2021 she lost her niece Paula Moreira, an 18-year-old freshman at Bridgewater College, to an opioid overdose.
“I saw my sister-in-law really struggling with the feeling that there wasn’t justice,” Silveira said.
She hopes lawmakers will make it easier to criminally charge drug dealers.
“You can sell a pill to six different people, and they might die in six locations surrounding you, but you can’t be charged with felony homicide,” Silveira said. “But if you share a pill with your friend who’s in the same room, you can be charged with felony homicide if your friend dies.”
She’s spent the past several years lobbying lawmakers to hold drug dealers accountable.
Silveira and Frisk both say they plan to attend the upcoming General Assembly to continue the effort.
