In honor of Mental Health Awareness Week : Juli Shamash from the Drug Awareness Foundation talks about the loss of her son to fentanyl and the work she is doing to help educate others.

Juli Shamash is a former elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom. After tragically losing her 19-year-old son Tyler from fentanyl poisoning in 2018, she and another grieving mom started Moms Against Drugs, a nonprofit to help other grieving parents. Juli is currently focusing on her family’s new non profit, Drug Awareness Foundation. She is working to promote fentanyl awareness and drug education for grades 7-12. She speaks to students, parents, and professional groups about drug abuse, overdose prevention, and the dangers of fentanyl-poisoned drugs. She also works on distributing fentanyl testing strips and naloxone in her community. Juli is the driving force behind the legislation, SB864, Tyler’s Law, which requires every hospital in California to test for fentanyl whenever they order a standard five-panel urine drug test. On August 22nd, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB864, Tyler’s Law and it went go into effect on January 1, 2023. The law was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate in December of 2023 and Juli is now working on trying to get it out of committee.

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