This issue has become quite personal for me, because I’ve had to respond to a number of opioid overdoses and incidents of fentanyl poisoning. It’s really brought this issue home for me. Several of those calls have been very tragic.”

United Way President and Hastings Police Officer Matt Hedrick

It really takes a village to help protect our kids, and I’m so proud to be here. The partnership I’ve already experienced in this community has just been second to none.”

Hastings School District Superintendent Dr. Tamara Champa

The message was clear from all panelists: Talk to kids about the dangers of fentanyl and look for warning signs.

It’s going to take the whole community, and thankfully for Hastings, there are already a lot of people hard at work fighting the fentanyl crisis.

But the highly addictive lethal drug has Hastings in its grips, as it does all communities. The Hastings United Way has taken on the fight against fentanyl with its “One Pill Can Kill: The Fentanyl Poisoning Crisis” series of programs.

The intent of the programs is to open the eyes of the community, parents and families so they know the warning signs of fentanyl use. The United Way held a panel discussion Sept. 19 in the Hastings High School Auditorium, where people affected by fentanyl – from families to law enforcement and a funeral director – gave testimony to the drug’s dangers.

Following the panel discussion, parents were encouraged to visit a simulated teen bedroom, so they know what dangers to look for.

United Way President and Hastings Police Officer Matt Hedrick opened the event.

“We’ve been doing a series of these in our community over the last couple of years, and during that time, we’ve partnered with a number of really key organizations in our community to build awareness of the challenges that we’re facing with fentanyl poisoning, both nationally but also right here in our own backyard,” he said. “This issue has become quite personal for me, because I’ve had to respond to a number of opioid overdoses and incidents of fentanyl poisoning. It’s really brought this issue home for me. Several of those calls have been very tragic. I’ve had to sit with parents and siblings and friends to help them process those first moments of shock and grief. There’s no other word but heartbreaking to describe some of those experiences.”

Hastings School District Superintendent Dr. Tamara Champa pledged that the school district will continue to help.

“It really takes a village to help protect our kids, and I’m so proud to be here,” she said. “The partnership I’ve already experienced in this community has just been second to none.”

No message shared that evening was as poignant as that given by Taylor Zetwick, whose brother, Dalton, died from a fentanyl overdose just months ago at the age of 33.

“My younger brother Dalton is forever 33. He never intended for his life to go this way or end this way,” she said. A friend “stuck a needle in his arm” at his senior prom. That same friend gave him pain pills when he broke his ankle in college “only later to tell him that it was heroin.”

“I remember the first time that I was told he had overdosed – not my brother. He wouldn’t do that. But he did,” Taylor recounted. “His life was a journey that was full of highs and lows. We had sober months, terrifying months and many different treatment programs. We supported him through all of it. My family has been absolutely crushed by drug addiction, which is a disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of illegal drugs or medicine.

“Some will think that can never be my child, but it can. Dalton was someone’s son. He was my brother. He was a father, a fiancé and uncle, a grandson, a cousin, a friend to so many.”

She referred to the importance of parents paying attention to the bedroom simulation.

“Less than two months ago, I held my purple, lifeless brother in my arms in a scene just like this in a place that I had walked by a million times before. There is not a day that isn’t full of pain. I can’t close my eyes without thinking of that morning. My parents are forever changed, shattered,” she said.

Law enforcement experts on the panel said the prevalence of fentanyl is something they deal with every day.

“I can honestly say that the amount of drugs that we’re seeing now is 10 times what we saw 10 years ago. Our Drug Task Force is doing all they can to make sure that they are removing the drugs and drug trafficking organizations,” said Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko. “These are very sophisticated organizations that are intentionally distributing these illegal drugs, addictive drugs to our citizens to get them addicted so that they want more. It’s a money-making business.”

He said the problem is that people think they’re buying painkillers, and they’re manufactured with fentanyl.

“They look very much alike and identical to the prescription pills, but they have fentanyl in them,” he said.

Fighting fentanyl is “an all-hands-on deck” situation, Leko said.

The message was clear from all panelists: Talk to kids about the dangers of fentanyl and look for warning signs.

“Drug dealers could care less. They truly do not care about your loved one,” said Hastings Police Chief David Wilske.

Said Zetwick, “I think it’s just time that people start talking about it to reduce the stigma around it. I feel like people look at my family and pity us, and we’re just a normal family. We all love each other, and it can happen to anybody.”

“I have a 13-year-old,” said Tiffany Neuharth of Rise Up Recovery in Hastings, who was a friend of Dalton Zetwick. “My biggest thing is talking to her. I know that it’s hard to talk about this to kids because we say ‘Well they don’t know about it. Now they do.’ Maybe they’ll be suspicious. Maybe they want to try it. I was very open with my daughter that day that Dalton passed away. And she very well knows in seventh grade that somebody in my life died from a fentanyl overdose. I’ve answered all of her questions, and I’d rather have that open door with her. The best things that you can do right now besides spreading awareness to your community is supporting your children and having that open door and not punishing them.”

Josh Fahey is Commander of the Dakota County Drug Task Force. He credited Hastings Schools with being open to helping get the word out about fentanyl to parents and families. He said many school districts won’t allow that same partnership.

Leko said he fears that with Minnesota legalizing cannabis, it can lead to more problems, especially with state-overseen dispensaries not coming until sometime in 2024.

“With the legalization of cannabis and the dispensary is not set up right now, I am very concerned of seeing the black market which is going to supply the majority of the marijuana that’s out there now, which could contain fentanyl as well. It’s going to have high THC levels from the cartels that continue to supply here. I don’t really see it here locally much, but I know what’s around the nation,” he said. “I can say that some of the marijuana coming in might indeed have fentanyl laced into it as well, so we have to be aware of that. It’s not just the pill form."