May 21, 2025 • 50 mins
Interview with Jaime Puerta, president of VOID, Victims Of Illicit Drugs, in particular Illicit Fentanyl bombarding our country with hundreds-of-thousands of deaths of our youth and young adults. Jaime is a grieving father who lost his 16-year old son, Daniel when he ingested a counterfeit pill that he purchased on SNAPCHAT, full of deadly Fentanyl that killed him.
Death by Deception!
Since, his son's death, Jaime has worked tirelessly in bringing awareness and education about the social media threat to all children, and for advocating for more common sense laws concerning Illicit Fentanyl trafficking.
WARNING TO ALL PARENTS... Fentanyl is killing at record levels and now Illicit Fentanyl is not only in counterfeit pills... but, now showing up in vaping products. One and Done counterfeit pills and now vaping products can be DEADLY if laced with Fentanyl!
Listen and Learn with factual and firsthand knowledge of this most deadly and potent drug!
VOID Victims Of Illicit Drugs
Nonprofit Organization
VOID was formed to bring to the public’s attention, through education, awareness and legislative advocacy, the immediate danger of sudden death associated with the use of illicit drugs, in particular FENTANYL, and other emerging synthetic analogs.
https://stopthevoid.org/
Click the above link to watch...
DEAD ON ARRIVAL - Documentary of Illicit Fentanyl
https://www.foxnews.com/.../fentanyl-more-accessible-kids...
The deadly drug has been found in vape pens on high school campuses in recent months
The Fatal Facts of Fentanyl podcast is dedicated to raising Awareness to the illicit FENTANYL crisis hitting the USA.
The goal is to SAVE LIVES and families from this travesty.
Awareness and Education are the Key.
Knowledge is Power!
The Fatal Facts of Fentanyl podcast is dedicated to raising Awareness to the illicit FENTANYL crisis hitting the USA.
The goal is to SAVE LIVES and families from this travesty.
Awareness and Education are the Key.
Knowledge is Power!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the year 2022.
I am your host, lisa Carroll,for the Fatal Facts of Fentanyl
podcast to bring you factualinformation for awareness and
education to the illicitfentanyl crisis in America.
My hope and motivation is tosave lives and spare loved ones
(00:23):
a similar grief of losingsomeone to this most potent and
deadly drug being infiltratedinto our country at alarming and
escalating rates, causinghundreds of thousands of deaths
with projected increasingnumbers.
This has got to stop.
This has got to stop.
(00:47):
After taking a break during themonth of December, anticipating
the first holiday seasonwithout my son who lost his life
to illicit fentanyl poisoning,I did a lot of soul searching
and I am being led to continueto interview experts and other
grieving parents to share theirstories with factual and
firsthand knowledge of thislethal drug.
(01:09):
We all share the common bondand are a part of a nationwide
coalition to bring awareness andeducation with positive and
much needed change.
Please pass this podcastforward.
You never know whose life youmight save.
(01:29):
I welcome my next guest, jaimePorta.
Jaime is a Marine Corps veteranand small business owner in
California.
He has been featured onnational TV and a part of this
coalition to bring awareness andeducation towards positive
changes.
He is a grieving fatherdedicated to fight this fight,
(01:53):
all for the love and honor forhis beloved son, daniel.
Daniel lost his life at age 16by ingesting an illicit fentanyl
counterfeit pill that hepurchased on Snapchat.
Since his son's untimely death,jaime has worked tirelessly in
(02:13):
bringing awareness about thesocial media threat to all
children and young adults inthis country and advocating for
more common sense lawsconcerning fentanyl trafficking.
He is also the president ofVictims Against Illicit Drugs,
which stands for VOID.
(02:34):
Void was formed to bring publicattention through education,
awareness and legislativeadvocacy, to the immediate
danger of sudden deathassociated with the use of
illicit drugs, in particular,fentanyl and other emerging
synthetic analogs.
Void speaks on behalf of theirloved ones who have been taken
(02:59):
and can no longer speak forthemselves.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing, jaime.
I know, as a grieving parentmyself, what have you learned
now that you wish you knew then?
Number one can you tell mefirst about Daniel and your
story, please?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, first and foremost, thank you so much for
having me on your podcast.
I truly appreciate it.
I think you're doing awonderful job in spreading
awareness and education as well,on the scourge that's plaguing
our communities.
My son, daniel Joseph Huerta,on March 31st, during the
(03:45):
pandemic, decided to reach outto a drug dealer on Snapchat,
purchased what he thought was ablue M30 oxycodone pill.
That pill was delivered half ablock from our home.
He came home that night and,after walking the dog and
picking up that pill without myknowledge, obviously and we had
dinner and we had a wonderfulnight full of laughs and and it
was a jovial night.
(04:05):
It was fantastic.
We had a great time that night.
And on April the 1st, the nextmorning, at approximately 8
o'clock in the morning, I walkedinto his room and I thought he
was dead.
You know it was something thatno parent should ever have to
see.
You know it was something thatno parent should ever have to
(04:28):
see is I've seen death beforeand and I pretty much thought my
son was gone, and so we called9-1-1 and they came and tried to
revive him.
They took him to Henry MayoHospital here in Santa Clarita,
california, here in SantaClarita California, and from
there he was transferred to LosAngeles Children's Hospital,
where he was kept alive untilhis biological mother and I
(04:50):
decided to withdraw alllife-saving mechanisms and the
technology that they were usingto keep him alive.
He was brain dead.
They told us that there wasabsolutely nothing that they
could do to bring him back, andso his mother, denise, and I
decided to basically withdrawthese life-saving mechanisms and
(05:13):
he passed away on April, the6th of 2020, at exactly 5.08 in
the afternoon in the afternoon.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It takes my breath away.
I can't imagine just this thewhole pain involved in all of
that.
I am so sorry.
I know that you have workedtirelessly, like I mentioned
before, on educating peopleabout illicit fentanyl and
sharing yours and Daniel's storyand your family's story.
(05:46):
What have you learned about?
You mentioned that he purchasedthis counterfeit pill on
Snapchat.
What have you learned aboutsocial media platforms and if
you can educate our audienceabout exactly what Snapchat does
and what happens on Snapchat,with dealers grooming children
(06:06):
like your son, daniel, who wasjust 16 years old.
If you can elaborate on thatfor our audience please.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, what I can tell you is that Snapchat purports
that they are a camera company.
They are everything but acamera company.
If you look at the logo fromSnapchat, it's a ghost.
And what do ghosts do?
Ghosts disappear.
So one of the features ofhaving that social media app is
(06:34):
that the conversations that youhave with your loved ones or
with your friends in yoursettings, you can make those
conversations disappear and haveno track record or record of it
, of what was the discussiontaking place.
And what that does is it opensup like a can of worms.
It opens up, you know, theability for nefarious actors to
(06:59):
reach out to your loved ones,your children, and that you, as
a parent, you absolutely have noidea of what they're doing on
this.
Now, snapchat's target market isour children between the ages
of 13 and 17 years of age.
They have lots of filters thatthey like to play with.
It's supposed to be all fun andgames, but what I have learned
(07:22):
is that drug dealers abound onthis platform, and what's
happened is is that you knowthis isn't 1992 or 1993 or 1994,
where before, if you wanted tobuy drugs, you would reach out
to your local drug dealer,whoever that may be, and you go
(07:43):
and you buy weed or cocaine orwhatever you're going to buy.
But, like everything else inthis world, commerce has gone
from brick and mortar buildingsto e-commerce platforms and
social media platforms likeSnapchat, instagram, facebook,
tiktok.
And what's happening is, youknow, on these smartphones,
(08:04):
these children have these appsand they're able to connect with
drug dealers who actuallydeliver the drugs to their home
or to half a block away fromyour home without your knowledge
and it's you know.
We have all of these drug deathsin the United States due to
fentanyl poisoning that havejust doubled year after year
(08:28):
after year, and you have all ofthe experts sitting here
scratching their heads wonderingwhat the hell is going on.
Why is this happening?
Well, one of the biggestreasons why it's happening is
the propagation of these drugdeaths is due to children using
social media platforms likeSnapchat, excuse me and they get
(08:52):
these drugs delivered to themand they die.
They die because they have noidea that what they are
consuming is a counterfeitopioid, most likely pressed
south of the border or here inthe United States, a pill made
to look like and mimic apharmaceutical-grade pill or a
(09:14):
pharmaceutically trademarkedpill that you would receive from
your local pharmacy, like aWalgreens or a CVS, when in all
reality it's a counterfeit pillmade of some kind of binder and
fentanyl and you die.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's alarming.
I mean, you're not the onlyparent that I've spoken to about
this and you and I know severalstories like this which are
true stories.
We're not making this up.
There's no conspiracy theorieshere.
These are all factual storiesfrom parents like yourself who
have lost their children tothese counterfeit pills and have
been groomed on Snapchatespecially and you mentioned
(09:54):
Snapchat.
It's like encrypted, encryptedall the information is encrypted
, like it disappears, like yousaid.
So that's actually a haven fordrug dealers.
I mean, you know, because it'shard to catch them, it's hard to
search them for evidence,things like that.
Okay and so, about the socialmedia platforms I know you and I
(10:18):
spoke about and I think it'simportant to bring awareness to
this, especially to parents.
Do you know about the DEArecent release of all the emojis
that are related to drug drugs,illicit drugs in this country
and how they communicate withchildren on these platforms with
(10:38):
the emojis?
What can you tell parents to beaware of this, to look for?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, one of the things that we have been
fighting for and that I think isvery, very important.
Like the executives at Snapchatstate that children who are
using their apps have the rightto privacy, which is just insane
to see what their children aredoing with their social media
(11:04):
apps like Snapchat, but Snapchatdoes not allow these apps to
(11:26):
work or to function because,again, concerns of privacy.
So this is a huge fight that wehave.
Dr Laura Berman and Sam Chapmanyou should interview them one
day.
They are heading with a federalbill called Sammy's Law.
They lost their 17-year-old son, sammy, last year, I believe in
(11:47):
March, and they're heading witha law called Sammy's Law, which
would permit apps like Bark orLife360 to monitor what your
children are doing on the socialmedia apps like Snapchat.
Now Snapchat, in answer to that, have come out and said that
(12:10):
they have come up with their ownapp, their own monitoring app
for parents, but it would onlyallow parents to see who your
children are havingconversations with, but it does
not give the parents the contentof those conversations.
And I'm not only talking aboutdrug dealing.
(12:32):
I'm talking about all kinds ofnefarious activities that happen
on these apps.
I had a mother from SantaClarita, california, where I
live, call me three weeks ago.
She knows the fight that I'm inand she forwarded me these
pictures of a grown man who wassending pictures of his private
(12:54):
parts to her 14-year-olddaughter.
Okay, it is absolutely heinous.
You know that this is going onon these social media platforms
and all in fact you know thething is is that these social
media apps they will claimprotections of Section 230C,
(13:18):
claim protections of Section230C.
So if we talk about Section 230C, section 230C was a law written
in 1996, before the explosionof internet.
Internet had come out, ofcourse, but we weren't.
The writers of the law couldnever have envisioned where
internet would be today, in 2022.
So when they wrote this law, itwas made to protect free speech
.
But what exactly you know, areyou protected from?
(13:42):
I mean?
If so, what they didn'tenvision is that internet
platforms would grow so big andbecome the behemoths that they
have.
We know for a fact that youknow, due to these platforms we
know of, they claim any ways ofelection integrity.
(14:05):
They talk about so many otherthings as well.
You know that is protected.
But anyways, what I want to getback to is that section two.
If you walk into a grocerystore and you slip and fall, you
can hold that supermarketliable for not keeping you safe,
right.
So if you slip and fall in apuddle of water, you know they
(14:26):
have a duty of care that theymust they must respect.
It's the same thing that we'redoing for Section 230C.
What we are asking is thatSection 230C be amended with the
provision a duty of careprovision which would basically
(14:47):
force all of these social mediaplatforms to police themselves,
make sure that they get rid ofall the drug dealers that are on
these platforms.
And not only that, lisa, but itwould allow parents nationwide
to bring a lawsuit against themedia platform, the social media
(15:07):
platform, and at least haveyour case listened to by your
peers and a judge, and then havethat judge and peers decide if
you have a case or not.
Because, as it is right now,thousands upon thousands of
parents who have lost theirchildren due to fentanyl
poisoning, knowing that theirchild attained that pill or that
(15:30):
lethal counterfeit pill througha social media app like
Snapchat, there is absolutelynothing that could be done in
today's day and age to holdSnapchat accountable for the
death of that child.
And that's what we need tochange.
We have to start the fightright there, and parents are
(15:50):
getting angry and we have lotsof partners and we've talked
about it.
Congress is talking about itright now.
We have a long ways to go.
I know that there's the will towanting to do it, but
unfortunately, being that welive in a country that is so
divided, right now they want todo reforms to Section 230C for
(16:14):
all the wrong reasons.
I believe, and I really dobelieve, that the answer to all
of this madness and thiscraziness that's going on in the
social media apps again is toinsert a duty of care provision
into the law of Section 230C.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yes, sir, what I've read about Section 230 a couple
of years ago actually was to meit's a way to protect the high
tech companies and what you'retalking about to write in that
provision definitely needs to bedone to protect families and
children, especially in thiscountry.
(16:53):
And you mentioned the sex.
There is sex trafficking.
That goes on.
There's drug trafficking theygo hand in hand.
And as far as the rights forchildren, we have rights as
their parents to protect them.
And you know it comes down towhat is right.
We need to do what's right inthis country instead of
(17:14):
protecting what is wrong in thiscountry, and I think you can
understand that and probablyagree with me.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would agree with you 100%.
When I first found out, when Ifelt that my son had dabbled
with marijuana for the firsttime, when I felt that my son
had dabbled with marijuana forthe first time, I actually had
him tested by our health careprovider here in California.
And when I asked for theresults of that urine test, they
(17:45):
refused to give it to me due toHIPAA concerns.
And I said well, wait a minute.
Who is paying for the healthinsurance?
I'm paying for the healthinsurance, I am the father, he
is the child.
I have a right to see the urineanalysis and they would not
give them to me unless he signedoff on it.
(18:07):
Absolute madness.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Absolute madness.
I went through the same thingwith my son too.
I got so angry.
Yes, sir, I went through thesame thing and here they are
leaving these life and deathsituations to.
My son was older, by the way,but because of the HIPAA laws
and because of the privacy,they're leaving this decision a
(18:33):
major decision, life or deathdecision is his hands instead of
the parent who is paying for it, and it is.
It's absurd, it's insane.
It is absolutely just a bigdeterrent in this country for
parents to save their childrenand we generally care and love
(18:53):
our children and that is a bigdeterrent in our society and
I've heard this from so manyparents and it is.
It's not logical, it's just notlogical.
We could go on and on aboutthat and there's definitely
changes that need to be madewith that.
Let's talk about these emojis,how kids communicate.
(19:14):
I know I had to look at these.
I looked it up and some of themare quite obvious.
There's leaves, a branch withleaves on it that obviously
means weed, okay.
There's a dragon I had to lookthat up.
That means heroin.
There's a mushroom that meansmagic mushrooms.
(19:36):
I mean, there's so many emojisthat they communicate with and
it's almost like think it's acode.
It's a code between and thenthere's combinations of emojis
that dealers communicate withthe kids and the kids
communicate with their friends.
And parents need to wake up,I'm sorry.
It's right there, blatantly infront of your face, and they
(19:57):
just want, they just tend toignore it.
What can you?
Let's talk about also theanalogs.
You talked about analogs beingcut into all drugs and these
counterfeit pills.
It's not just solicit fentanyl,it's the analogs of this.
What do you know about theanalogs like carfentanil and all
(20:17):
the other ones?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, drug dealers are always trying to.
These chemists are alwaystrying to switch up the
chemistry of the fentanyl in andof itself, due to the fact that
there are some laws out therethat target some of these things
or do not target enough of them, so they play with them.
I'll be very frank with you,though I've not I've not, I've
(20:42):
only heard of one case of ayoung victim dying due to the
ingestion of carfentanil.
Most of them, if not all ofthem, have just been due to
illicit fentanyl.
The analogs that are coming upand there's more things coming
down the pipeline, you know,let's not forget that these drug
dealers and these chemists,they are very, very savvy.
(21:06):
They need to be changing therecipes all the time because
they're looking for the best orthe best high that they can give
their clients without trying tokill them, which is something
completely different.
But the analogs I really havenot heard that much about them.
We're starting to hear aboutcannabis being laced with
(21:27):
marijuana, though we haven't hadany definitive proof of that.
I was on the Fox News show theother night where they were
talking about vapes withfentanyl in it.
I have not really heard a lotabout that either.
From what I understand, it maybe the kids themselves or
somebody putting fentanyl in thevapes, but any way you look at
(21:49):
it, right now we are looking atwidespread death in this nation.
We're in not for fentanyl.
All of these kids would stillbe alive.
I almost feel bad for thisgeneration of children, lisa,
because you know, I mean, I wasno angel when I was a kid.
Yeah, I smoked pot and thingslike that, but at least you know
(22:11):
I could go home and sleep itoff and the next day be OK.
This generation of childrendoesn't even have the luxury of
even experimenting with drugs,because it can be one and done
(22:34):
dangerous things out there.
The analogs, the licit fentanylyou just don't know.
You're playing Russian roulettewith a loaded gun and it's very
unfortunate, and the kids aredying left and right.
You know, and then you have, Idon't know.
It's just madness right now.
It's just crazy.
I think that the only way thatwe're going to be able to slow
the death rates down in theUnited States is only through
education and awareness.
(22:55):
I don't believe that we'regoing to arrest our way out of
it, as much as I would like that.
I think that the messagingneeds to be in every single
school and colleges across thisnation.
I don't know if you know thisor not, but there was a
documentary, a 21-minutedocumentary, called Dead on
(23:17):
Arrival, and we were in thatdocumentary, and I'm saying this
, by the way, everything that Ido does not come from a base of
ego or anything like that.
Everything that I do is becauseI'm trying to avert as many
deaths as possible in thiscountry.
(23:38):
So believe me when I'm tellingyou this is that I have been
told, and so have my partners,is that Dead on Arrival, this
video, has been a success,whereas being used in high
schools and giving that message.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I love Dead on Arrival.
That is a wonderful.
I think it's the bestdocumentary that I've seen.
The person who did it wasDominic right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
The director's name is Dominic it is the best one
I've ever seen and it's veryhighly educational and it deals
with the facts, and kids andparents in schools, whatever
need to deal with the facts ofthis.
And that's what we're alltrying to do is just bring
awareness and education.
None of us make money from this.
(24:24):
I mean, that's not our motiveat all.
We're just trying to.
I feel like we're being led.
I know we're being led.
Everyone I've ever interviewed,including yourself.
We're on this mission to justbring awareness and education to
save lives, to save other youngpeople's lives, and to bring
(24:44):
factual information to parentsto what to look for in schools.
I know that to be true.
I know that definitely.
You know we talked about vaping.
I did.
I want to thank you.
You actually got me motivatedto get back in the saddle with
this podcast because it takes anemotional toll on me and as a
(25:06):
person, I can tell you honestly,listening to story after story
after story and it gets very,you know, sad, so sad.
At times I had to back away.
But listening to you and DerekMaltz on Fox the other night
talk about this, it just reallymotivated me and I know has led
to interview you.
So thank you so much.
(25:27):
But let's talk about vaping.
There was a time I reallythought vapes, vapes are not
good by any means.
Whether you're vaping, you know, the nicotine is high, high
levels of nicotine.
If you're vaping in the pot,the weed high levels of THC.
Parents need to be aware ofthis and I have looked into this
(25:51):
.
Somebody with a governmentagency actually informed me
about vaping a couple of monthsago and what they do is they can
take the liquid out of the vapeand they can put anything in
there.
And, yes, we've got to be open.
We've got to open our mindsabout the different ways of
manufacturing, distributing andways of ingesting illicit
(26:14):
fentanyl.
And, of course, it would notsurprise me if vaping is one of
those ways that kids are doingand they don't know what they're
ingesting.
It's quite easy for fentanylillicit fentanyl to be put in a
vape by somebody.
The recent stories about vapingcame out of South Carolina,
(26:34):
connecticut, new Mexico.
That is the ones that I've,I've, I've listened to and it's
very probable that that hashappened.
No doubt, if it can happen in acounterfeit pill that people
wouldn't have believed a coupleof years ago and it's happened,
killing people it can certainlybe put in a vape product and it
can be deadly and definitelylaced with fentanyl.
(26:57):
What do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, you know, if you look at vape, um, vaping, um
, for example, companies likeJuul you know that made these
bubble gum flavors and thecotton candy flavors and they
made it all you know, very cool,quote unquote to vape.
And it's really an epidemic,also in high schools where we
(27:25):
have kids vaping left and right.
I can't even imagine what wouldhappen if it became a vast way
of introducing fentanyl into themarket through vapes, because
let's look at it this way, weknow that there is no quality
(27:47):
control at all when they makethe counterfeit bills.
It's like the chocolate chipcookie analog.
One chocolate chip will havemaybe two chips of chocolate,
another one might have six.
The one that has six you'regoing to die.
So how are they going to dothat with the vapes I have?
Again, I have not heardwidespread use of it.
They are starting to come outand there's some reports out
(28:09):
there.
I pray to God that this doesnot heard widespread use of it.
They are starting to come outand there's some reports out
there.
I pray to God that this doesnot become widespread because if
it does, I can't even imaginethe amount of deaths that are
going to happen in this nationdue to the fact that vaping is
very popular amongst teens.
And not only that, but it'sjust so, so, so addicting as
(28:31):
well, so I can't even fathomwhat would happen.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
You know, jaime, I can't either, but I want you to
think about this.
We couldn't fathom thecounterfeit pills.
That happened a couple of yearsago.
We weren't aware of that either.
So I think it is important forus to open up to the
possibilities and that it couldvery well happen Because, like
(28:59):
you said, these dealers, thesedrug people, are very slick,
they're very streetwise, theyknow what they're doing.
Also, a lot of people don'tthey're not aware that fentanyl
is cheaper to manufacture than,say, heroin.
They're making a ton of money.
This is a multi-billion dollarindustry that we are paying the
(29:22):
expense for.
We are losing hundreds ofthousands of children and young
adults in this country.
When is it going to stop?
What do we need to do?
I mean, you and I probably knowsome of the answers to this and
like to see what's going to bedone.
But I want to elaborate,because I know one thing that
(29:44):
you and your group are doing,and let's talk about the details
of the upcoming rally atSnapchat headquarters.
I know it's going to be inSanta Monica, california, this
Friday, january 21st, at 12 noonPacific time.
Let's elaborate on that andeducate our audience about that
and share the details of that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, we had had a meeting with Snapchat in April
of 2021.
Myself and 17 other familieswere.
Three executives of Snapchatwere on the call, on the Zoom
call, and they basically hadacted like they didn't know that
it had become such a widespreadproblem.
(30:27):
But we know that drug dealingon Snapchat is probably as early
as 2017, 2018 was happening,but nothing was being done about
it due to the fact that theydidn't want to do anything about
it.
You know, if you, if you, wereto bring that kind of attention
that your, your app, is killingchildren, they don't want
(30:48):
anything to do about it.
And you know, a lot of parentsgot together.
We got tired of it.
We needed to bring awareness toit and when we did that rally
in June of 2021, a lot of mediashowed up.
The local media, local Fox Newschannel showed up, ktla, a
bunch of news organizationsshowed up, and then that opened
(31:11):
up the national conversation.
Then we were invited onto thenational shows and people wanted
to learn more about it.
Due to the stigma of addictionand overdose, when you hear of a
kid dying, most people think,or most families think, well,
that's never going to happen tomy kid, because we don't have
that problem in our family.
(31:31):
We don't have recreational drugusers in our family.
We don't have people who areaddicted to drugs in our family.
Well, guess what?
They're on Snapchat.
They're bored in a pandemic.
They want to spread their wingsper se, they want to experiment
(31:54):
.
They go onto this platform andthey die.
Now they said that they havedone many algorithm changes, so
they're trying to kick peopleoff of their platform.
Excuse me, but we still knowthat children are still dying
today.
So what we've done is we'vecome up with a transparency act.
(32:17):
What we're asking of Snapchatis that they're saying that
they've launched all thesealgorithms, that they've kicked
off thousands upon thousandsupon thousands of drug dealers
off of their platform, that theyhave these PSAs on there so
children can see them to makesure that they do not buy drugs
on their platform, but we feelthat that, I think, is just a
(32:38):
lot of fluff.
What we've asked for is atransparency committee a
committee made up of retired lawenforcement lawmakers, teachers
and bereaved parents who havelost their children to be able
to audit their efforts.
We want to know exactly whatthey're doing, in what timely
(32:58):
manner, for example, if lawenforcement submits a subpoena
to Snapchat to get the wholeSnapchat conversation between a
drug dealer and a kid.
It shouldn't take over a yearto get the whole Snapchat
conversation between a drugdealer and a kid.
It shouldn't take over a yearto get that record, like I did.
It took over a year for mydetective to get that record.
(33:19):
Why did it take so long?
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You would think somebody would want to help with
that investigation.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Absolutely.
And while this whole year wentby, how many more drugs were
sold by that drug dealer toother unsuspecting children?
How many more died?
So you know, that's just one ofthe issues.
We want a turnaround time ofanywhere between 24 to 48 hours
(33:50):
if it's warranted, you know, toget the Snapchat conversation.
Not only that, we don't onlywant the drug dealer taken off
of the platform, we want acriminal referral of that drug
dealer to the local lawenforcement agency where that
drug dealer is at, and we wantthem stopped, we want them
(34:10):
arrested.
You know, I think by doing smallmeasures like that and then we
can make sure that it'shappening, then maybe we'll slow
down the drug deaths.
That and, along with theprovision of care that we talked
to, the duty of care provisionthat we wanted inserted in
Section 230C, I think that we'llbe able to do that.
And the only way that we'regoing to be able to get this
(34:30):
done is when families cometogether and voice their anger
and their frustrations at abehemoth, a company worth $100
billion.
You know, you had Evan Spiegelon a Yahoo article like three
months ago, talking about his$100 million home that he bought
(34:53):
in Homeby Hills, a home that'snot even finished, by the way,
worth $100 million.
And you have all of theseparents with their dead children
, with a behemoth like Snapchatthat is not doing nearly enough
to stop the deaths of theirchildren.
And we know that we can't bringback our kids, but can at least
can we try to save morechildren from falling in the
(35:15):
hands of an unscrupulous actoron Snapchat, buying what he's
thinking is a pharmaceuticalgrade pill, only to consume a
counterfeit and die.
So we want transparency, wewant to know what they're doing.
We want we want real results ina timely manner.
We want the subpoenas answeredin a timely manner.
(35:38):
We want criminal referrals in atimely manner, and the only way
we can do that is by voicingour, you know, lifting our
voices together in unison atthis company and see if we can
get it done.
We there was.
They got a lot of you know they.
There was a lot of warrantedhow should I say this?
(35:59):
There was a lot of warranted.
They did not expect the mediato look at them now with a
microscope.
Since then, they've been up onthe Capitol steps, they've been
in hearings in the Senate,they've been in Congress.
They've been grilled by bothDemocrats and Republicans
wanting transparency from them.
(36:20):
I don't think they everexpected that and that wouldn't
have happened.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And I'm not giving myself credit, lisa, I'm telling
you it's a lot of Well, you'repart of a coalition and I can a
lot of.
Well, you're part of acoalition and I can give you
credit.
Okay, you're part of acoalition across this country
and y'all have done some greatthings the last several years,
and I know what your motivationis, and I'm going to ask you
what motivates you, what is yourhope?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
You're going to make me cry, that's okay.
You're being real.
My motivation is my son.
My motivation is your son, lisa.
My motivation are the alex's ofthe world, of the jessicas of
uh, of the jonathans of you know.
There are just so many kidsthat I know in pictures that
(37:10):
they should be here.
They should be here right now,but they're not due to failed
policy failures, due to failuresof our laws.
As far as Section 230 C goes.
There's a lot that motivates me, but at night, when I put my
leg, my, I lay my head on thepillow, I asked myself did you
(37:31):
do enough today?
Did you do enough?
And?
And that's hard and it's hardbecause sometimes we feel like
we're we're fighting a losingbattle.
But again, education awarenessis key.
I invite everybody to go on towwwstopthevoidorg.
You can find our documentarythere.
There are absolutely nocopyrights to that documentary,
(37:54):
so it can be shared wide, it canbe shared in schools, it can be
shared in any way you want.
You do not need our permissionto use it.
And we're going to keepfighting and we're going to keep
going at this.
We're going to keep bringingthe pressure on Snapchat every
single day and we're going totry to hold our legislators
accountable.
(38:14):
Here in California,unfortunately, we have a very,
very progressive state wherethere are no punitive measures
possible to get passed in ourlocal Senate and Assembly.
Here it's impossible.
So the only way we feel that wecan slow these deaths down is
by education and awareness.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well, I'm going to tell you too.
I live in the South and thesame thing's happening here,
it's happening in the Northeast,it's happening across this
country and it's going to take.
You know, I kind of get angryabout this, but I've got to step
back from that anger andresentment.
Why do grieving parents have tobe the ones pushing this, to
bring any public healthawareness to this country?
(39:00):
Why?
I don't have the answer to that.
All I know is we've got to doit.
We've got to do it.
If we don't do it, it's notgoing to get done.
And there's also it's alsopeople like our friend, derek
Maltz.
He has gotten everybody onnational news to talk about this
and it has come a long way andit's going to continue 2022.
(39:26):
It's going to continue and weare going to fight the fight and
motivate each other and keepthe positivity, because we all
have a common goal and that isto bring awareness and education
and spare other families thisgrief and to save young people's
lives.
It's as simple as that.
(39:46):
As simple as that.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
There are a lot of groups working in this space of
fentanyl awareness.
I could go.
I have a long list of them.
They are all in their own space, but they are all working in
conjunction of trying to dosomething about this problem.
It's almost I may bepresumptuous of me to say maybe
(40:08):
like the Civil Rights Act or theCivil Rights Movement in the
United States, where it took ageneration of people to get up
and say this is not right, thisis wrong.
What is going on, this needschange, and they got the change
and we got the change that weneeded.
It's the same thing here.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
It's the same exact thing.
I totally agree with you.
I read something today aboutwith Martin Luther King, his
speech.
I read it and it's the same.
I could totally empathize andyou can too.
It's the same type of mission.
It's the same type of call.
It's because this is wrong.
What is going on, this is justtotally wrong.
(40:45):
It's evil and it's up to peopleto change it, and we do.
We're up against the wall, wedo have a fight, but we're doing
it for the common good and Iknow that to be true.
And I mean I can't thank youenough.
You're a true warrior and thankyou for everything that you
have done and continue to do forthis cause.
(41:08):
I want to especially thank youfor sharing your beautiful son
Daniel's story with us and yourfamily story, and I just my hope
is for people just to empathizeand to open their minds and
their hearts and their souls tothis.
This is so important.
It's wiping out a generation ofpeople.
(41:31):
That's not exaggerating, andit's up to all of us, as
individuals and as groups, totry to change this.
And, jaime, just God bless youand your loved ones on this
grief journey.
I just can't thank you enoughand I really do appreciate it.
(41:53):
And I'm going to ask you onemore thing.
If there's one thing you cantell parents, what would that
thing be?
Speaker 2 (42:03):
If you are paying for your child's phone, you have a
right to monitor what they'redoing on that phone, and if they
don't want you to do it, thenyou take the phone away.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Exactly, and I think too, though you mentioned one
time if parents think this can'thappen to them, what do you say
to that?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
If you think it can't happen to you, look at my
family, look at your family andlook at the video clips of
hundreds of thousands offamilies across this nation that
are going through the sameunimaginable loss, tragic loss
of their children.
And we were all caught with ourpants down.
(42:48):
We had absolutely no idea ofthe proliferation of illicit
fentanyl in this country, theproliferation of counterfeit
opioids made to mimic or lookexactly like
pharmaceutical-grade pills,which these kids like doing
because they think there's amagic elixir in them, not
(43:09):
knowing that it could take theirown lives.
If you think that it can happento you, think again.
Do your research, Monitor yourchild's phone, for God's sakes.
If they don't like it, take itaway from them and just be very,
very, very vigilant.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
That's all I can say thank you and I appreciate your
candidness and I appreciate yourhonesty and everything you're
saying is so true and genuineand thank you and I hope I hope
people listen.
I truly do.
Anyway, thank you, we'll haveto do this again.
(43:47):
Good luck with the rally thisfriday.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I can't wait to see it and watch it and hear all
about it and um we will bemeeting at clover park in santa
monica, california, at 11 30 inthe morning and from there we're
going to walk up to theheadquarters.
But everything's going to startout at about 11 30 in the
morning at Clover Park in SantaMonica, california.
(44:10):
Even if you have not lost achild and you would like to help
us spread awareness, please bethere.
We would love to have you there.
There's going to be someimportant speakers there,
there's going to be a lot ofmedia there and we say this in
all in, you know, just trying toeducate the public and bringing
awareness to this scourge thatis plaguing our communities.
(44:34):
And thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Glad you got motivated to do me the first of
the year or, you know, yourfirst one this year.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Hey you and Derek motivated me.
Thank you, I appreciate it somuch.
But anyway, thank you and Godbless you.
Okay, take care.
Thank you.
Welcome to the year 2022.
I am your host, lisa Carroll,for the Fatal Facts of Fentanyl
podcast to bring you factualinformation for awareness and
education to the illicitfentanyl crisis in America.
My hope and motivation is tosave lives and spare loved ones
(00:23):
a similar grief of losingsomeone to this most potent and
deadly drug being infiltratedinto our country at alarming and
escalating rates, causinghundreds of thousands of deaths
with projected increasingnumbers.
This has got to stop.
This has got to stop.
(00:47):
After taking a break during themonth of December, anticipating
the first holiday seasonwithout my son who lost his life
to illicit fentanyl poisoning,I did a lot of soul searching
and I am being led to continueto interview experts and other
grieving parents to share theirstories with factual and
firsthand knowledge of thislethal drug.
(01:09):
We all share the common bondand are a part of a nationwide
coalition to bring awareness andeducation with positive and
much needed change.
Please pass this podcastforward.
You never know whose life youmight save.
(01:29):
I welcome my next guest, jaimePorta.
Jaime is a Marine Corps veteranand small business owner in
California.
He has been featured onnational TV and a part of this
coalition to bring awareness andeducation towards positive
changes.
He is a grieving fatherdedicated to fight this fight,
(01:53):
all for the love and honor forhis beloved son, daniel.
Daniel lost his life at age 16by ingesting an illicit fentanyl
counterfeit pill that hepurchased on Snapchat.
Since his son's untimely death,jaime has worked tirelessly in
(02:13):
bringing awareness about thesocial media threat to all
children and young adults inthis country and advocating for
more common sense lawsconcerning fentanyl trafficking.
He is also the president ofVictims Against Illicit Drugs,
which stands for VOID.
(02:34):
Void was formed to bring publicattention through education,
awareness and legislativeadvocacy, to the immediate
danger of sudden deathassociated with the use of
illicit drugs, in particular,fentanyl and other emerging
synthetic analogs.
Void speaks on behalf of theirloved ones who have been taken
(02:59):
and can no longer speak forthemselves.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing, jaime.
I know, as a grieving parentmyself, what have you learned
now that you wish you knew then?
Number one can you tell mefirst about Daniel and your
story, please?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, first and foremost, thank you so much for
having me on your podcast.
I truly appreciate it.
I think you're doing awonderful job in spreading
awareness and education as well,on the scourge that's plaguing
our communities.
My son, daniel Joseph Huerta,on March 31st, during the
(03:45):
pandemic, decided to reach outto a drug dealer on Snapchat,
purchased what he thought was ablue M30 oxycodone pill.
That pill was delivered half ablock from our home.
He came home that night and,after walking the dog and
picking up that pill without myknowledge, obviously and we had
dinner and we had a wonderfulnight full of laughs and and it
was a jovial night.
(04:05):
It was fantastic.
We had a great time that night.
And on April the 1st, the nextmorning, at approximately 8
o'clock in the morning, I walkedinto his room and I thought he
was dead.
You know it was something thatno parent should ever have to
see.
You know it was something thatno parent should ever have to
(04:28):
see is I've seen death beforeand and I pretty much thought my
son was gone, and so we called9-1-1 and they came and tried to
revive him.
They took him to Henry MayoHospital here in Santa Clarita,
california, here in SantaClarita California, and from
there he was transferred to LosAngeles Children's Hospital,
where he was kept alive untilhis biological mother and I
(04:50):
decided to withdraw alllife-saving mechanisms and the
technology that they were usingto keep him alive.
He was brain dead.
They told us that there wasabsolutely nothing that they
could do to bring him back, andso his mother, denise, and I
decided to basically withdrawthese life-saving mechanisms and
(05:13):
he passed away on April, the6th of 2020, at exactly 5.08 in
the afternoon in the afternoon.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It takes my breath away.
I can't imagine just this thewhole pain involved in all of
that.
I am so sorry.
I know that you have workedtirelessly, like I mentioned
before, on educating peopleabout illicit fentanyl and
sharing yours and Daniel's storyand your family's story.
(05:46):
What have you learned about?
You mentioned that he purchasedthis counterfeit pill on
Snapchat.
What have you learned aboutsocial media platforms and if
you can educate our audienceabout exactly what Snapchat does
and what happens on Snapchat,with dealers grooming children
(06:06):
like your son, daniel, who wasjust 16 years old.
If you can elaborate on thatfor our audience please.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, what I can tell you is that Snapchat purports
that they are a camera company.
They are everything but acamera company.
If you look at the logo fromSnapchat, it's a ghost.
And what do ghosts do?
Ghosts disappear.
So one of the features ofhaving that social media app is
(06:34):
that the conversations that youhave with your loved ones or
with your friends in yoursettings, you can make those
conversations disappear and haveno track record or record of it
, of what was the discussiontaking place.
And what that does is it opensup like a can of worms.
It opens up, you know, theability for nefarious actors to
(06:59):
reach out to your loved ones,your children, and that you, as
a parent, you absolutely have noidea of what they're doing on
this.
Now, snapchat's target market isour children between the ages
of 13 and 17 years of age.
They have lots of filters thatthey like to play with.
It's supposed to be all fun andgames, but what I have learned
(07:22):
is that drug dealers abound onthis platform, and what's
happened is is that you knowthis isn't 1992 or 1993 or 1994,
where before, if you wanted tobuy drugs, you would reach out
to your local drug dealer,whoever that may be, and you go
(07:43):
and you buy weed or cocaine orwhatever you're going to buy.
But, like everything else inthis world, commerce has gone
from brick and mortar buildingsto e-commerce platforms and
social media platforms likeSnapchat, instagram, facebook,
tiktok.
And what's happening is, youknow, on these smartphones,
(08:04):
these children have these appsand they're able to connect with
drug dealers who actuallydeliver the drugs to their home
or to half a block away fromyour home without your knowledge
and it's you know.
We have all of these drug deathsin the United States due to
fentanyl poisoning that havejust doubled year after year
(08:28):
after year, and you have all ofthe experts sitting here
scratching their heads wonderingwhat the hell is going on.
Why is this happening?
Well, one of the biggestreasons why it's happening is
the propagation of these drugdeaths is due to children using
social media platforms likeSnapchat, excuse me and they get
(08:52):
these drugs delivered to themand they die.
They die because they have noidea that what they are
consuming is a counterfeitopioid, most likely pressed
south of the border or here inthe United States, a pill made
to look like and mimic apharmaceutical-grade pill or a
(09:14):
pharmaceutically trademarkedpill that you would receive from
your local pharmacy, like aWalgreens or a CVS, when in all
reality it's a counterfeit pillmade of some kind of binder and
fentanyl and you die.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's alarming.
I mean, you're not the onlyparent that I've spoken to about
this and you and I know severalstories like this which are
true stories.
We're not making this up.
There's no conspiracy theorieshere.
These are all factual storiesfrom parents like yourself who
have lost their children tothese counterfeit pills and have
been groomed on Snapchatespecially and you mentioned
(09:54):
Snapchat.
It's like encrypted, encryptedall the information is encrypted
, like it disappears, like yousaid.
So that's actually a haven fordrug dealers.
I mean, you know, because it'shard to catch them, it's hard to
search them for evidence,things like that.
Okay and so, about the socialmedia platforms I know you and I
(10:18):
spoke about and I think it'simportant to bring awareness to
this, especially to parents.
Do you know about the DEArecent release of all the emojis
that are related to drug drugs,illicit drugs in this country
and how they communicate withchildren on these platforms with
(10:38):
the emojis?
What can you tell parents to beaware of this, to look for?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, one of the things that we have been
fighting for and that I think isvery, very important.
Like the executives at Snapchatstate that children who are
using their apps have the rightto privacy, which is just insane
to see what their children aredoing with their social media
(11:04):
apps like Snapchat, but Snapchatdoes not allow these apps to
(11:26):
work or to function because,again, concerns of privacy.
So this is a huge fight that wehave.
Dr Laura Berman and Sam Chapmanyou should interview them one
day.
They are heading with a federalbill called Sammy's Law.
They lost their 17-year-old son, sammy, last year, I believe in
(11:47):
March, and they're heading witha law called Sammy's Law, which
would permit apps like Bark orLife360 to monitor what your
children are doing on the socialmedia apps like Snapchat.
Now Snapchat, in answer to that, have come out and said that
(12:10):
they have come up with their ownapp, their own monitoring app
for parents, but it would onlyallow parents to see who your
children are havingconversations with, but it does
not give the parents the contentof those conversations.
And I'm not only talking aboutdrug dealing.
(12:32):
I'm talking about all kinds ofnefarious activities that happen
on these apps.
I had a mother from SantaClarita, california, where I
live, call me three weeks ago.
She knows the fight that I'm inand she forwarded me these
pictures of a grown man who wassending pictures of his private
(12:54):
parts to her 14-year-olddaughter.
Okay, it is absolutely heinous.
You know that this is going onon these social media platforms
and all in fact you know thething is is that these social
media apps they will claimprotections of Section 230C,
(13:18):
claim protections of Section230C.
So if we talk about Section 230C, section 230C was a law written
in 1996, before the explosionof internet.
Internet had come out, ofcourse, but we weren't.
The writers of the law couldnever have envisioned where
internet would be today, in 2022.
So when they wrote this law, itwas made to protect free speech
.
But what exactly you know, areyou protected from?
(13:42):
I mean?
If so, what they didn'tenvision is that internet
platforms would grow so big andbecome the behemoths that they
have.
We know for a fact that youknow, due to these platforms we
know of, they claim any ways ofelection integrity.
(14:05):
They talk about so many otherthings as well.
You know that is protected.
But anyways, what I want to getback to is that section two.
If you walk into a grocerystore and you slip and fall, you
can hold that supermarketliable for not keeping you safe,
right.
So if you slip and fall in apuddle of water, you know they
(14:26):
have a duty of care that theymust they must respect.
It's the same thing that we'redoing for Section 230C.
What we are asking is thatSection 230C be amended with the
provision a duty of careprovision which would basically
(14:47):
force all of these social mediaplatforms to police themselves,
make sure that they get rid ofall the drug dealers that are on
these platforms.
And not only that, lisa, but itwould allow parents nationwide
to bring a lawsuit against themedia platform, the social media
(15:07):
platform, and at least haveyour case listened to by your
peers and a judge, and then havethat judge and peers decide if
you have a case or not.
Because, as it is right now,thousands upon thousands of
parents who have lost theirchildren due to fentanyl
poisoning, knowing that theirchild attained that pill or that
(15:30):
lethal counterfeit pill througha social media app like
Snapchat, there is absolutelynothing that could be done in
today's day and age to holdSnapchat accountable for the
death of that child.
And that's what we need tochange.
We have to start the fightright there, and parents are
(15:50):
getting angry and we have lotsof partners and we've talked
about it.
Congress is talking about itright now.
We have a long ways to go.
I know that there's the will towanting to do it, but
unfortunately, being that welive in a country that is so
divided, right now they want todo reforms to Section 230C for
(16:14):
all the wrong reasons.
I believe, and I really dobelieve, that the answer to all
of this madness and thiscraziness that's going on in the
social media apps again is toinsert a duty of care provision
into the law of Section 230C.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yes, sir, what I've read about Section 230 a couple
of years ago actually was to meit's a way to protect the high
tech companies and what you'retalking about to write in that
provision definitely needs to bedone to protect families and
children, especially in thiscountry.
(16:53):
And you mentioned the sex.
There is sex trafficking.
That goes on.
There's drug trafficking theygo hand in hand.
And as far as the rights forchildren, we have rights as
their parents to protect them.
And you know it comes down towhat is right.
We need to do what's right inthis country instead of
(17:14):
protecting what is wrong in thiscountry, and I think you can
understand that and probablyagree with me.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I would agree with you 100%.
When I first found out, when Ifelt that my son had dabbled
with marijuana for the firsttime, when I felt that my son
had dabbled with marijuana forthe first time, I actually had
him tested by our health careprovider here in California.
And when I asked for theresults of that urine test, they
(17:45):
refused to give it to me due toHIPAA concerns.
And I said well, wait a minute.
Who is paying for the healthinsurance?
I'm paying for the healthinsurance, I am the father, he
is the child.
I have a right to see the urineanalysis and they would not
give them to me unless he signedoff on it.
(18:07):
Absolute madness.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Absolute madness.
I went through the same thingwith my son too.
I got so angry.
Yes, sir, I went through thesame thing and here they are
leaving these life and deathsituations to.
My son was older, by the way,but because of the HIPAA laws
and because of the privacy,they're leaving this decision a
(18:33):
major decision, life or deathdecision is his hands instead of
the parent who is paying for it, and it is.
It's absurd, it's insane.
It is absolutely just a bigdeterrent in this country for
parents to save their childrenand we generally care and love
(18:53):
our children and that is a bigdeterrent in our society and
I've heard this from so manyparents and it is.
It's not logical, it's just notlogical.
We could go on and on aboutthat and there's definitely
changes that need to be madewith that.
Let's talk about these emojis,how kids communicate.
(19:14):
I know I had to look at these.
I looked it up and some of themare quite obvious.
There's leaves, a branch withleaves on it that obviously
means weed, okay.
There's a dragon I had to lookthat up.
That means heroin.
There's a mushroom that meansmagic mushrooms.
(19:36):
I mean, there's so many emojisthat they communicate with and
it's almost like think it's acode.
It's a code between and thenthere's combinations of emojis
that dealers communicate withthe kids and the kids
communicate with their friends.
And parents need to wake up,I'm sorry.
It's right there, blatantly infront of your face, and they
(19:57):
just want, they just tend toignore it.
What can you?
Let's talk about also theanalogs.
You talked about analogs beingcut into all drugs and these
counterfeit pills.
It's not just solicit fentanyl,it's the analogs of this.
What do you know about theanalogs like carfentanil and all
(20:17):
the other ones?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, drug dealers are always trying to.
These chemists are alwaystrying to switch up the
chemistry of the fentanyl in andof itself, due to the fact that
there are some laws out therethat target some of these things
or do not target enough of them, so they play with them.
I'll be very frank with you,though I've not I've not, I've
(20:42):
only heard of one case of ayoung victim dying due to the
ingestion of carfentanil.
Most of them, if not all ofthem, have just been due to
illicit fentanyl.
The analogs that are coming upand there's more things coming
down the pipeline, you know,let's not forget that these drug
dealers and these chemists,they are very, very savvy.
(21:06):
They need to be changing therecipes all the time because
they're looking for the best orthe best high that they can give
their clients without trying tokill them, which is something
completely different.
But the analogs I really havenot heard that much about them.
We're starting to hear aboutcannabis being laced with
(21:27):
marijuana, though we haven't hadany definitive proof of that.
I was on the Fox News show theother night where they were
talking about vapes withfentanyl in it.
I have not really heard a lotabout that either.
From what I understand, it maybe the kids themselves or
somebody putting fentanyl in thevapes, but any way you look at
(21:49):
it, right now we are looking atwidespread death in this nation.
We're in not for fentanyl.
All of these kids would stillbe alive.
I almost feel bad for thisgeneration of children, lisa,
because you know, I mean, I wasno angel when I was a kid.
Yeah, I smoked pot and thingslike that, but at least you know
(22:11):
I could go home and sleep itoff and the next day be OK.
This generation of childrendoesn't even have the luxury of
even experimenting with drugs,because it can be one and done
(22:34):
dangerous things out there.
The analogs, the licit fentanylyou just don't know.
You're playing Russian roulettewith a loaded gun and it's very
unfortunate, and the kids aredying left and right.
You know, and then you have, Idon't know.
It's just madness right now.
It's just crazy.
I think that the only way thatwe're going to be able to slow
the death rates down in theUnited States is only through
education and awareness.
(22:55):
I don't believe that we'regoing to arrest our way out of
it, as much as I would like that.
I think that the messagingneeds to be in every single
school and colleges across thisnation.
I don't know if you know thisor not, but there was a
documentary, a 21-minutedocumentary, called Dead on
(23:17):
Arrival, and we were in thatdocumentary, and I'm saying this
, by the way, everything that Ido does not come from a base of
ego or anything like that.
Everything that I do is becauseI'm trying to avert as many
deaths as possible in thiscountry.
(23:38):
So believe me when I'm tellingyou this is that I have been
told, and so have my partners,is that Dead on Arrival, this
video, has been a success,whereas being used in high
schools and giving that message.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I love Dead on Arrival.
That is a wonderful.
I think it's the bestdocumentary that I've seen.
The person who did it wasDominic right.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
The director's name is Dominic it is the best one
I've ever seen and it's veryhighly educational and it deals
with the facts, and kids andparents in schools, whatever
need to deal with the facts ofthis.
And that's what we're alltrying to do is just bring
awareness and education.
None of us make money from this.
(24:24):
I mean, that's not our motiveat all.
We're just trying to.
I feel like we're being led.
I know we're being led.
Everyone I've ever interviewed,including yourself.
We're on this mission to justbring awareness and education to
save lives, to save other youngpeople's lives, and to bring
(24:44):
factual information to parentsto what to look for in schools.
I know that to be true.
I know that definitely.
You know we talked about vaping.
I did.
I want to thank you.
You actually got me motivatedto get back in the saddle with
this podcast because it takes anemotional toll on me and as a
(25:06):
person, I can tell you honestly,listening to story after story
after story and it gets very,you know, sad, so sad.
At times I had to back away.
But listening to you and DerekMaltz on Fox the other night
talk about this, it just reallymotivated me and I know has led
to interview you.
So thank you so much.
(25:27):
But let's talk about vaping.
There was a time I reallythought vapes, vapes are not
good by any means.
Whether you're vaping, you know, the nicotine is high, high
levels of nicotine.
If you're vaping in the pot,the weed high levels of THC.
Parents need to be aware ofthis and I have looked into this
(25:51):
.
Somebody with a governmentagency actually informed me
about vaping a couple of monthsago and what they do is they can
take the liquid out of the vapeand they can put anything in
there.
And, yes, we've got to be open.
We've got to open our mindsabout the different ways of
manufacturing, distributing andways of ingesting illicit
(26:14):
fentanyl.
And, of course, it would notsurprise me if vaping is one of
those ways that kids are doingand they don't know what they're
ingesting.
It's quite easy for fentanylillicit fentanyl to be put in a
vape by somebody.
The recent stories about vapingcame out of South Carolina,
(26:34):
connecticut, new Mexico.
That is the ones that I've,I've, I've listened to and it's
very probable that that hashappened.
No doubt, if it can happen in acounterfeit pill that people
wouldn't have believed a coupleof years ago and it's happened,
killing people it can certainlybe put in a vape product and it
can be deadly and definitelylaced with fentanyl.
(26:57):
What do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, you know, if you look at vape, um, vaping, um
, for example, companies likeJuul you know that made these
bubble gum flavors and thecotton candy flavors and they
made it all you know, very cool,quote unquote to vape.
And it's really an epidemic,also in high schools where we
(27:25):
have kids vaping left and right.
I can't even imagine what wouldhappen if it became a vast way
of introducing fentanyl into themarket through vapes, because
let's look at it this way, weknow that there is no quality
(27:47):
control at all when they makethe counterfeit bills.
It's like the chocolate chipcookie analog.
One chocolate chip will havemaybe two chips of chocolate,
another one might have six.
The one that has six you'regoing to die.
So how are they going to dothat with the vapes I have?
Again, I have not heardwidespread use of it.
They are starting to come outand there's some reports out
(28:09):
there.
I pray to God that this doesnot heard widespread use of it.
They are starting to come outand there's some reports out
there.
I pray to God that this doesnot become widespread because if
it does, I can't even imaginethe amount of deaths that are
going to happen in this nationdue to the fact that vaping is
very popular amongst teens.
And not only that, but it'sjust so, so, so addicting as
(28:31):
well, so I can't even fathomwhat would happen.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
You know, jaime, I can't either, but I want you to
think about this.
We couldn't fathom thecounterfeit pills.
That happened a couple of yearsago.
We weren't aware of that either.
So I think it is important forus to open up to the
possibilities and that it couldvery well happen Because, like
(28:59):
you said, these dealers, thesedrug people, are very slick,
they're very streetwise, theyknow what they're doing.
Also, a lot of people don'tthey're not aware that fentanyl
is cheaper to manufacture than,say, heroin.
They're making a ton of money.
This is a multi-billion dollarindustry that we are paying the
(29:22):
expense for.
We are losing hundreds ofthousands of children and young
adults in this country.
When is it going to stop?
What do we need to do?
I mean, you and I probably knowsome of the answers to this and
like to see what's going to bedone.
But I want to elaborate,because I know one thing that
(29:44):
you and your group are doing,and let's talk about the details
of the upcoming rally atSnapchat headquarters.
I know it's going to be inSanta Monica, california, this
Friday, january 21st, at 12 noonPacific time.
Let's elaborate on that andeducate our audience about that
and share the details of that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, we had had a meeting with Snapchat in April
of 2021.
Myself and 17 other familieswere.
Three executives of Snapchatwere on the call, on the Zoom
call, and they basically hadacted like they didn't know that
it had become such a widespreadproblem.
(30:27):
But we know that drug dealingon Snapchat is probably as early
as 2017, 2018 was happening,but nothing was being done about
it due to the fact that theydidn't want to do anything about
it.
You know, if you, if you, wereto bring that kind of attention
that your, your app, is killingchildren, they don't want
(30:48):
anything to do about it.
And you know, a lot of parentsgot together.
We got tired of it.
We needed to bring awareness toit and when we did that rally
in June of 2021, a lot of mediashowed up.
The local media, local Fox Newschannel showed up, ktla, a
bunch of news organizationsshowed up, and then that opened
(31:11):
up the national conversation.
Then we were invited onto thenational shows and people wanted
to learn more about it.
Due to the stigma of addictionand overdose, when you hear of a
kid dying, most people think,or most families think, well,
that's never going to happen tomy kid, because we don't have
that problem in our family.
(31:31):
We don't have recreational drugusers in our family.
We don't have people who areaddicted to drugs in our family.
Well, guess what?
They're on Snapchat.
They're bored in a pandemic.
They want to spread their wingsper se, they want to experiment
(31:54):
.
They go onto this platform andthey die.
Now they said that they havedone many algorithm changes, so
they're trying to kick peopleoff of their platform.
Excuse me, but we still knowthat children are still dying
today.
So what we've done is we'vecome up with a transparency act.
(32:17):
What we're asking of Snapchatis that they're saying that
they've launched all thesealgorithms, that they've kicked
off thousands upon thousandsupon thousands of drug dealers
off of their platform, that theyhave these PSAs on there so
children can see them to makesure that they do not buy drugs
on their platform, but we feelthat that, I think, is just a
(32:38):
lot of fluff.
What we've asked for is atransparency committee a
committee made up of retired lawenforcement lawmakers, teachers
and bereaved parents who havelost their children to be able
to audit their efforts.
We want to know exactly whatthey're doing, in what timely
(32:58):
manner, for example, if lawenforcement submits a subpoena
to Snapchat to get the wholeSnapchat conversation between a
drug dealer and a kid.
It shouldn't take over a yearto get the whole Snapchat
conversation between a drugdealer and a kid.
It shouldn't take over a yearto get that record, like I did.
It took over a year for mydetective to get that record.
(33:19):
Why did it take so long?
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You would think somebody would want to help with
that investigation.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Absolutely.
And while this whole year wentby, how many more drugs were
sold by that drug dealer toother unsuspecting children?
How many more died?
So you know, that's just one ofthe issues.
We want a turnaround time ofanywhere between 24 to 48 hours
(33:50):
if it's warranted, you know, toget the Snapchat conversation.
Not only that, we don't onlywant the drug dealer taken off
of the platform, we want acriminal referral of that drug
dealer to the local lawenforcement agency where that
drug dealer is at, and we wantthem stopped, we want them
(34:10):
arrested.
You know, I think by doing smallmeasures like that and then we
can make sure that it'shappening, then maybe we'll slow
down the drug deaths.
That and, along with theprovision of care that we talked
to, the duty of care provisionthat we wanted inserted in
Section 230C, I think that we'llbe able to do that.
And the only way that we'regoing to be able to get this
(34:30):
done is when families cometogether and voice their anger
and their frustrations at abehemoth, a company worth $100
billion.
You know, you had Evan Spiegelon a Yahoo article like three
months ago, talking about his$100 million home that he bought
(34:53):
in Homeby Hills, a home that'snot even finished, by the way,
worth $100 million.
And you have all of theseparents with their dead children
, with a behemoth like Snapchatthat is not doing nearly enough
to stop the deaths of theirchildren.
And we know that we can't bringback our kids, but can at least
can we try to save morechildren from falling in the
(35:15):
hands of an unscrupulous actoron Snapchat, buying what he's
thinking is a pharmaceuticalgrade pill, only to consume a
counterfeit and die.
So we want transparency, wewant to know what they're doing.
We want we want real results ina timely manner.
We want the subpoenas answeredin a timely manner.
(35:38):
We want criminal referrals in atimely manner, and the only way
we can do that is by voicingour, you know, lifting our
voices together in unison atthis company and see if we can
get it done.
We there was.
They got a lot of you know they.
There was a lot of warrantedhow should I say this?
(35:59):
There was a lot of warranted.
They did not expect the mediato look at them now with a
microscope.
Since then, they've been up onthe Capitol steps, they've been
in hearings in the Senate,they've been in Congress.
They've been grilled by bothDemocrats and Republicans
wanting transparency from them.
(36:20):
I don't think they everexpected that and that wouldn't
have happened.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And I'm not giving myself credit, lisa, I'm telling
you it's a lot of Well, you'repart of a coalition and I can a
lot of.
Well, you're part of acoalition and I can give you
credit.
Okay, you're part of acoalition across this country
and y'all have done some greatthings the last several years,
and I know what your motivationis, and I'm going to ask you
what motivates you, what is yourhope?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
You're going to make me cry, that's okay.
You're being real.
My motivation is my son.
My motivation is your son, lisa.
My motivation are the alex's ofthe world, of the jessicas of
uh, of the jonathans of you know.
There are just so many kidsthat I know in pictures that
(37:10):
they should be here.
They should be here right now,but they're not due to failed
policy failures, due to failuresof our laws.
As far as Section 230 C goes.
There's a lot that motivates me, but at night, when I put my
leg, my, I lay my head on thepillow, I asked myself did you
(37:31):
do enough today?
Did you do enough?
And?
And that's hard and it's hardbecause sometimes we feel like
we're we're fighting a losingbattle.
But again, education awarenessis key.
I invite everybody to go on towwwstopthevoidorg.
You can find our documentarythere.
There are absolutely nocopyrights to that documentary,
(37:54):
so it can be shared wide, it canbe shared in schools, it can be
shared in any way you want.
You do not need our permissionto use it.
And we're going to keepfighting and we're going to keep
going at this.
We're going to keep bringingthe pressure on Snapchat every
single day and we're going totry to hold our legislators
accountable.
(38:14):
Here in California,unfortunately, we have a very,
very progressive state wherethere are no punitive measures
possible to get passed in ourlocal Senate and Assembly.
Here it's impossible.
So the only way we feel that wecan slow these deaths down is
by education and awareness.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Well, I'm going to tell you too.
I live in the South and thesame thing's happening here,
it's happening in the Northeast,it's happening across this
country and it's going to take.
You know, I kind of get angryabout this, but I've got to step
back from that anger andresentment.
Why do grieving parents have tobe the ones pushing this, to
bring any public healthawareness to this country?
(39:00):
Why?
I don't have the answer to that.
All I know is we've got to doit.
We've got to do it.
If we don't do it, it's notgoing to get done.
And there's also it's alsopeople like our friend, derek
Maltz.
He has gotten everybody onnational news to talk about this
and it has come a long way andit's going to continue 2022.
(39:26):
It's going to continue and weare going to fight the fight and
motivate each other and keepthe positivity, because we all
have a common goal and that isto bring awareness and education
and spare other families thisgrief and to save young people's
lives.
It's as simple as that.
(39:46):
As simple as that.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
There are a lot of groups working in this space of
fentanyl awareness.
I could go.
I have a long list of them.
They are all in their own space, but they are all working in
conjunction of trying to dosomething about this problem.
It's almost I may bepresumptuous of me to say maybe
(40:08):
like the Civil Rights Act or theCivil Rights Movement in the
United States, where it took ageneration of people to get up
and say this is not right, thisis wrong.
What is going on, this needschange, and they got the change
and we got the change that weneeded.
It's the same thing here.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
It's the same exact thing.
I totally agree with you.
I read something today aboutwith Martin Luther King, his
speech.
I read it and it's the same.
I could totally empathize andyou can too.
It's the same type of mission.
It's the same type of call.
It's because this is wrong.
What is going on, this is justtotally wrong.
(40:45):
It's evil and it's up to peopleto change it, and we do.
We're up against the wall, wedo have a fight, but we're doing
it for the common good and Iknow that to be true.
And I mean I can't thank youenough.
You're a true warrior and thankyou for everything that you
have done and continue to do forthis cause.
(41:08):
I want to especially thank youfor sharing your beautiful son
Daniel's story with us and yourfamily story, and I just my hope
is for people just to empathizeand to open their minds and
their hearts and their souls tothis.
This is so important.
It's wiping out a generation ofpeople.
(41:31):
That's not exaggerating, andit's up to all of us, as
individuals and as groups, totry to change this.
And, jaime, just God bless youand your loved ones on this
grief journey.
I just can't thank you enoughand I really do appreciate it.
(41:53):
And I'm going to ask you onemore thing.
If there's one thing you cantell parents, what would that
thing be?
Speaker 2 (42:03):
If you are paying for your child's phone, you have a
right to monitor what they'redoing on that phone, and if they
don't want you to do it, thenyou take the phone away.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Exactly, and I think too, though you mentioned one
time if parents think this can'thappen to them, what do you say
to that?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
If you think it can't happen to you, look at my
family, look at your family andlook at the video clips of
hundreds of thousands offamilies across this nation that
are going through the sameunimaginable loss, tragic loss
of their children.
And we were all caught with ourpants down.
(42:48):
We had absolutely no idea ofthe proliferation of illicit
fentanyl in this country, theproliferation of counterfeit
opioids made to mimic or lookexactly like
pharmaceutical-grade pills,which these kids like doing
because they think there's amagic elixir in them, not
(43:09):
knowing that it could take theirown lives.
If you think that it can happento you, think again.
Do your research, Monitor yourchild's phone, for God's sakes.
If they don't like it, take itaway from them and just be very,
very, very vigilant.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
That's all I can say thank you and I appreciate your
candidness and I appreciate yourhonesty and everything you're
saying is so true and genuineand thank you and I hope I hope
people listen.
I truly do.
Anyway, thank you, we'll haveto do this again.
(43:47):
Good luck with the rally thisfriday.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I can't wait to see it and watch it and hear all
about it and um we will bemeeting at clover park in santa
monica, california, at 11 30 inthe morning and from there we're
going to walk up to theheadquarters.
But everything's going to startout at about 11 30 in the
morning at Clover Park in SantaMonica, california.
(44:10):
Even if you have not lost achild and you would like to help
us spread awareness, please bethere.
We would love to have you there.
There's going to be someimportant speakers there,
there's going to be a lot ofmedia there and we say this in
all in, you know, just trying toeducate the public and bringing
awareness to this scourge thatis plaguing our communities.
(44:34):
And thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Glad you got motivated to do me the first of
the year or, you know, yourfirst one this year.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Hey you and Derek motivated me.
Thank you, I appreciate it somuch.
But anyway, thank you and Godbless you.
Okay, take care.
Thank you.
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