The Morning Groove w/ John Nasshan

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Welcome to the podcast. This is Nashen and I'm here today with a guest that is visiting from out of state. She is on a nationwide campaign about something very important, a little more serious than what we usually talk about here in the Morning Groove podcast, but it really needs to be talked about. And my guest today is Teresa Guerrero. Hello.

0:00:24
Hello, John.

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How are you?

0:00:26
Pretty good.

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How about you? Good. I'm glad you're here because this is a subject that has affected so many people. It's touched my family through my cousin's stepson and it's touched you very directly. The issue we're talking about is fentanyl and its proliferation in the United States and let's get a little back story about you first.

0:00:46
Okay. Well, I have been advocating bringing awareness against fentanyl for about three years now since my son passed away in 2020. And I'm just trying to get the word out there about this evil poison so we can try and save as many lives as we can.

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Where did you grow up? Let's give them a little story on you.

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I grew up in Sierra Vista, Arizona, which is south of Tucson. I moved to Tucson in 1985 and I've been there ever since I went to my high school and all my school years in Sierra Vista

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And your son's name? He was Jacob, Jacob Guerrero. Oh nice. How old was Jacob? He was 31 Wow, that's early. Yeah, and I know you're really advocating about this evil poison That's out there and it's becoming used more and more often. The cartels are using it, correct?

0:01:36
Yes, exactly. And what do they do with it? So what happens is the precursor drug comes in from China and then Mexico gets a hold of it from the ocean drop. They mix the fentanyl and they don't measure anything. It's just their chemist in a basement lab in this nasty vat mixing this evil poison. And then they add it to meth, heroin, marijuana, cocaine. They make fake pills, they have fake pill presses that they make these pills and they don't measure. So you don't know if you're getting like a pill that's gonna kill three people or four people or a pill that might kill one, so you don't know. And then they have their runners bring them to the United States where they are killing our kids.

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And I understand from what I've seen in the news that they're they make them in pretty colors and make them attractive to the young people. Yes they

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are making really pretty colors to look like the what are the candy that's I can't remember. I know she said Smarties. Yeah something like that. So anyhow they're making the pills so that they're more enticing to the younger kids like the 14-year-olds. So you know, it's deceiving someone to death is what it is.

0:02:55
It is, and it's done to stretch the drug and make more money for them. Yes. And I understand the latest thing now is they're adding animal tranquilizers.

0:03:05
Yes, they are adding what's called xylosine, and that is Narcan resistant, which Narcan Naloxone, for those of you who don't know, can save a life from an opiate overdose. And that could be a legal opiate or an illegal opiate. But the xylosine is Narcan resistant and it does eat your skin. Wow.

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Yes. Narcan resistant is a big issue.

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It is.

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Because that can save many lives by itself.

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Yes.

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Exactly.

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And you know what's interesting, I've seen the subject of fentanyl used in major television shows. There was a Blue Bloods episode where Danny's partner touches the drug and almost dies. And it's still not sinking in that it's not safe to get drugs on the street.

0:03:52
No it's not. And you know, people also need to be aware that there are two types of fentanyl. There is an illegal illicit fentanyl, which is the one I just spoke about, and then there's a legal fentanyl which is used in surgeries and it is safe and it can alleviate the pain which I had it administered to me last year but not without crying first because just hearing that word was painful for me. Yeah I know it's commonly used in a lot

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of hospital situations and it's used properly or with moderation, it's not going to kill.

0:04:30
Exactly, and that's the problem is you know you hear so many people that had four to five times the legal limit and also there are other types of fentanyl that are being ingested that are actually for animals. Carfentanil is one of them. So you just don't know what you're going to get and it's just safer if you can get your pill from a pharmacy and if your children stress to your children that they need to get the pills from their parents or candy or anything. It's best to not take anything from a stranger or somebody you even know other than a parent.

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That's true. Mom and dad were correct when they said look out for stranger danger.

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Exactly.

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Because it's more true now than ever before. And my understanding is what they're doing is they're adding the fentanyl to increase the high and the tranquilizer to make it longer, which makes this drug even more exciting to

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people.

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Yes. Yes. We just had EDC in town recently, the Electric Daisy Carnival. I wonder how many people got sick while they were there. It's craziness to accept anything on the street today.

0:05:41
Exactly. I mean, we're losing a plane load of people a day to fentanyl. And it's only getting worse. The numbers have only increased since my son died in 2020. They were also deaths back in 16 and 17, but you just didn't hear about it. Prince and Tom Petty both died from fentanyl, and it was illegal fentanyl. It wasn't illegal, it wasn't a prescription. So it's just out there everywhere and people we've had a few people die in Tucson that were famous. A rapper, I can't remember which rapper it was, and then a country singer they found him dead on a in an alley. How terrible. Luke Bell I believe is his name.

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That's terrible. Is there any age demographics or ethnic demographic on this?

0:06:28
Well, it was 18, I believe, to 45 was the popular age group, but now it's becoming less. And I mean, there's even a little baby, 18-month-old, I believe, Serenity, that died from getting her dad's fake pill. And you hear of toddlers all the time. And a lot of 14, 15, I'm hearing a lot of that because they're getting these pills at school or they're trying marijuana and people don't believe it's a marijuana but it is because I've known of many parents who've lost their children to marijuana that was laced.

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Well, and the truth of that is if you're going to smoke marijuana, dispensaries, a reputable

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dispensary with the license is the only source. Exactly. That's safe. Exactly and a lot of people are getting the dispensary marijuana and lacing it. So it's best for you to go directly yourself and don't get it second hand because you don't know what evil person's going to do just for money. Right oh exactly it's all done for money to start with. It is and the reason people ask why is fentanyl being added to these other drugs? Why? They know they might kill their customer. Well, they want to addict you and then you're going to say, hey, give me more of what you gave me that last time. The problem is you get it the next time and it could have a lethal amount that's going to kill you.

0:07:51
Well, and the thing, being a musician, I've encountered people with heroin addiction throughout my career. And there's a thing with heroin addicts that I've experienced where their biggest quest is how high can I get? They're always looking for another level of high. And as they're adding these other things to the heroin, that other level of high could be the last ever, even without an overdose.

0:08:19
Definitely. Yeah, it's Russian roulette. And we don't refer to someone who's died from fentanyl and unknowingly died to an overdose. We look at it as poisoning, drug-induced homicide, because fentanyl is a weapon of mass destruction. It's not going away and more needs to be done to bring awareness. As parents, we're putting up billboards across the United States out of our own pockets. We're spending the money so that we can try to help to save these young lives.

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Now is there anything law enforcement can possibly do?

0:08:51
Well, law enforcement in Tucson, they do speak to schools and they do have billboards. So like Map Force is out of Prescott, Arizona and they do a lot of billboards where they say one pill can kill. And I've seen many in between Tucson and Phoenix. We're getting ready to do one in Tempe, this is our second one with Rachel's Angels, that is going to be a digital board that has at least maybe 20 of our angels on it. And so, you know, that sort of thing is helping to bring awareness. So that's what we need to do, but I believe that the government needs to do more.

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Wouldn't it be good if the government created a central organization? Yes. With a big website with all this information?

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Exactly.

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I mean, is there somewhere people can find the right

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information online? Yes, actually through the DEA, they have a lot of information. Matter of fact, there is a museum in Arlington, Virginia called the Faces of Fentanyl and my son's actually in that museum. It's just walls of people who've died from fentanyl poisoning and the sad thing is it's full and it's only I think two or three years old Wow and there's also a really good video called dead on arrival fentanyl and so it they show that in schools so just bring in more awareness to schools I mean that is where we really need to focus is the young children because they're the most vulnerable so if we can get into the schools and just really talk to them like stranger danger or the drug, you know, how the drug programs were in schools, it needs to be a focus on fentanyl alone.

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Are they inviting the parents to these meetings?

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Yes.

0:10:40
Yes, they are actually. Are they attending? You know, not very many. I was going to be speaking with the DEA at one of the schools in Tucson and we still will do it, but I understand that there wasn't a lot of response. So the parents, they are always wanting to say, not my child. And there's a stigma that it's just drug users, you know, drug addicts, but it's not just them, it's first-time users that are dying.

0:11:04
I have always lived under the theory that it all starts with parenting. Because you're not a bad parent if your kid gets high. Right. But you're a bad parent if your kid doesn't know the dangers. And you can't just look the other way. I know when my son was growing up, I told him about everything. I told him about the whole drug world. I said, hey, whatever you've got to do, you've got to do. But remember this when you're doing it. Yeah, exactly. And I think if the parents would be more... they have to put it in words the kids will accept, but if they

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were more serious about, hey that stuff kills. Right, I agree with you. The problem is too that I have found a lot of people don't know about fentanyl. I've talked to people on the streets all the time that I don't know and I let them know about fentanyl. I say, do you know what this is? I spoke to a mom not that long ago and she had no idea what fentanyl was. But she did tell me that her young middle schooler was smoking marijuana. What she didn't know is that fentanyl could be mixed in that. Her eyes were so big. I'm always handing out Narcan, so I handed her a box of Narcan. But that's the problem, is we need to educate the parents so they can educate the kids, because fentanyl is a foreign word to so many people.

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Yeah, because when I was growing up, my father's thing was like, drugs bad. Marijuana will make you a heroin addict. Nothing is good about anything. And I'm like, well, then I've got to try it because dad didn't think it was good.

0:12:38
Right. Yeah, exactly. But now you can't even try a drug because it's Russian roulette. You don't know. I mean, back when, you know, my generation, and that wasn't that long ago?

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Ha ha.

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When we were using, you know, I shouldn't say we because I tried things here and there, but anyhow, you weren't going to die by experimenting. And now you can try something for the first time and you're dead. And the problem with fentanyl is you try it, you're going to drop dead right now. And unless there's somebody with Narcan right there, you may not survive. Like my son, sadly, he had lived, you know, poor thing, half a day. Sadly, he wasn't able to be revived with Narcan because it was too late. But he fought it.

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He fought it.

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Sure.

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It's just such a terrible thing that's happening. It is. And I hope we come to a solution someday.

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I do.

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A wall at the border is not going to help. All the guards on earth wouldn't help.

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It's a matter of education, I think. It is education and that's why so many of the groups that I belong to, there are people out there, parents, that have foundations and that is their main primary focus is to go into the schools, get the billboards, educate the parents, and that's what they're doing. I mean that's what we're doing as parents and it shouldn't just be the parents doing this because we don't want this to happen to anybody else.

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No.

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No, we don't.

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Oh, gosh, no.

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We know what it's like.

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It's excruciating pain that your child died at the hands of another person. Sadly, the person who did this to my son, we don't know who it was. I have an idea, but I always say God will get them.

0:14:23
In this world, they won't be caught, but God sees it all. There's a different feeling from when I've talked to people that have lost family members when they don't know who the cause was. It's different from knowing because when you know you can do something about it. Right. The helplessness is like my mother always

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said, give it to God. Yeah and I do. You know. Otherwise I'm just you just kind of you get caught up in it. You get the anger, you get caught up in it, but I try not to think about it. All I think about at this point is who can I talk to and maybe they will talk to their kids or grandkids, but there is a stigma about it. Oh, my child doesn't, they don't mess with drugs. Well, you don't know. Are you with them 24-7 where you can see exactly what they are doing? Because guess what? My parents thought I was a, you know, had the halo above my head. But I experimented with things. So we're not perfect. No one is perfect. And you need to educate. Otherwise, you're going to be doing what I did and burying your child.

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My son basically didn't stand a chance of using drugs much because I did them all when

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I was young.

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Right.

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So you knew. And I told him when he was 14 years old, I said, dude, do whatever you want to do, but I'll know." And I told him at one point, I said, you want to experiment, do it with me in the room. Don't do it with your buddies, don't do it alone, and don't ever get behind the wheel of a weapon and drive.

0:15:52
No, and that's a good point actually. I know there are places where they're trying to make a safe place for you to use drugs so that there's Narcan on hand if you do happen to overdose on the drug. And there's kind of a, you know, people aren't really fond of that, but I think, I'm mixed on it, but the benefit is that you have a chance to live, you know, because you have somebody there that's going to care. A lot of times when you're using with your friends and you're dying or you die, they leave you there. I've heard that so many times. We have a good Samaritan law where you can help the person, you're not going to go to jail for it. But a lot of times you hear about these people that they've been left for dead or are dead.

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Sure. Well, and I'm sure the younger people especially, if your friend is showing symptoms of dying, you're going to run. Exactly. Because you don't want to get in that and you're going to think you're going to be in

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trouble.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And you don't want to get found out by your parents.

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No, no.

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So again, in my mind, we're going circles. We're going back to parenting. We're going back to information. We're going back to help your kids to help themselves. When I was in eighth grade, ninth grade, they had movies that we'd watch where they talked about drop a dime on your friends, which meant if you've got a friend doing drugs, call somebody, tell them, tell their parents. We never did, but basically educate is what we need to be doing.

0:17:25
Yeah, so it has to be out there in full force. I mean, that's why I start talking about Jacob to so many people all the time and just say please talk to your kids, talk to your grandkids, talk to your friends' kids. I don't care if, you know, they don't do the drugs or you don't think they do. You just have to do this because, you know, we're not going to... This generation is leaving. It's leaving through these drugs. And there's people... The other day I heard something where it was a lawyer, a public... What was it? There were three professions that were very high, which you consider high standard, and they all died from the same dealer from fentanyl poisoning. Yeah. So, you know, that's another stigma, right? It's only happening to the lawyers, to the doctors, to the professional people with graduate degrees. And so it's not just the people on the streets, it's everybody and it's every race. And it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't care if you have a PhD. It's going to get you all the same.

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It likes it if you have money though.

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Exactly, right? And you know, the thing is though, one pill is what, less than two dollars? It doesn't take much to kill one person.

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Well, and the thing about people that are really blessed with wealth, my son went to school with a lot of doctors and lawyers kids in high school. And they all had the same symptom. They had everything they wanted. They got high, they drank, they had fake IDs, they had nice fancy cars. So, if not as much, they may be even more in danger.

0:19:15
I agree because the money is just unlimited. You can buy whatever you want. And it doesn't matter if you know the dealer. If you know that dealer so well, it doesn't matter because you're getting that shipment from Mexico and it's really a crapshoot.

0:19:34
I'm thinking, and this is just, I'm a little twisted at times, but I'm thinking maybe one of Jacob's purposes was to do this and to help everyone else.

0:19:43
I always say that. I always say that everything good and bad happens for a reason, whether you like it or not, and I know that he would be happy that I'm doing this. He didn't die in vain, and neither did all the other thousands of kids and parents that I know. And you'd be surprised how many people are doing what I'm doing now that their children have died. One mom, Amy Neville, she lost her son Alexander Neville to a fake Percocet, I believe, at the age of 14. Wow. And so now she's going throughout the United States. She's always going to Washington DC and she's a really big voice. Matter of fact, that video I told you about, Dead on Arrival, it was mainly made because of her.

0:20:30
Yeah, I'm guessing one of the hardest things to get through to our government officials is the fact that they need to get over themselves and listen to people.

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They do. And sadly though, until it happens to them or somebody they know, that's when it all hits home. And it happens all too often that, oh, unless it happens to you, you just, and that's just human nature, right? Because until it happened to me, then I'm like, oh my goodness, now I need to do something. But that's just how it is with everybody. But sadly, politics, that's what we're expected of them to do, is to take care of us. You know? And I mean, I've gone in front of legislatures in Arizona at the Capitol with other parents trying to get bills passed to stiffen the penalties against these drug dealers because they're basically getting a slap on the hand and they're killing people. Oh, if it was mixed with another drug, well we can't totally blame it on the fentanyl because he had used cocaine. No. Mm-hmm. I agree with you 100%. This is

0:21:30
very informative and I'm hoping that you that are listening are taking note of this and you're learning from this because it could be your problem and you Yes. And you're learning from this because it could be your problem and you don't even know it. Exactly.

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And I want to thank you for coming in.

0:21:51
Thank you, John.

0:21:52
I appreciate it. And giving me your time. Thank you. And opening your heart up to us. Thank you for bringing awareness. I appreciate you. I want to thank you for tuning in to the Morning Groove podcast. This is John Nashen, my guest, Teresa Guerrero.

0:22:04
Take care of your kids.

0:22:06
Educate them. And if the kids won't listen go to their mom and dad. Exactly. And I want to And if the kids won't listen go to their mom and dad. Exactly. And I want to thank you for tuning in. Take care of yourselves. We will talk soon. Thank you.

Transcribed with Cockatoo