- Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with Patrice Lenowitz, who is the mother of Max.

And we'll talk about Max in just a minute.

His story is incredibly important to what we're about to talk about.

Patrice is here to fight the scourge of fentanyl poisoning.

There is an epidemic going on in our state, in our nation.

Patrice, you honor us by being with us.

Thanks so much.

- Thank you so much, Steve, for the opportunity to talk about this because we're only gonna save lives by sharing this information.

- Talk to us about Max.

- Well, in preparation of talking with you today, Steve, I've been bawling all morning.

When I talk about, you know, the work we're doing behind the scenes to stop it, I have the courage, but speaking about Max, my firstborn baby, he was, you know, as I always told him, and all my children, I have three, Max is the oldest, that he was a blessing from heaven.

And, well, I can tell you this, Steve.

Besides being an amazing athlete, he went to Pascack Hills.

He was a lacrosse player.

25 was his number.

He was an amazing brother.

He was an amazing son, grandson, and had a vast array of deep, powerful friendships.

He was just an incredible human being.

I got Stage 3 colon cancer in 2021, and I was diagnosed and had to undergo chemotherapy.

And Max lived in South Jersey at the time.

And every three weeks when I had to go for chemo, he would come home and I would say, "Please don't come home when I'm getting chemo, because I feel awful and I can't get out of bed, Max."

I wanna be with him and I wanna spend time with him.

I wanna cook for him, and I wanna, you know.

And he said, "Well, if all you can do is lie in bed, I'm gonna lie in bed with you."

And for three weeks, Max came home and lied in bed with his mom undergoing chemo and cooked for me and his stepdad 'cause he wanted to take care of his stepdad because he knew that, you know, everyone was frightened.

And that's the love of Max.

He actually knew how to meet you where you are and support you and love you.

And that's what we're missing now.

And that's what we're missing in this nation, you know, losing so many of our young people to fentanyl poisoning.

- Max connects to Fentanyl how?

How does that happen?

- So, it was Max's 25th birthday.

And a rule in our family was, if we're not gonna actually be together on our birthdays, we have to talk at midnight.

So James and I called him at midnight and sung the "Happy Birthday" song, monkey song to him and got to hear about what his plans were.

And I'm so grateful for that call because it was so full of love and laughter.

He told us about his plans for his 25th birthday.

His closest friends were driving down from North Jersey to South Jersey to be with him.

They were going to stay overnight in Atlantic City and go to a restaurant that he had worked at for many years, Shuckers in Margate, and it was wonderful.

However, he never made it to his birthday celebration.

His friends couldn't find him, got a bit panicked and even went to his apartment.

And the landlord who knew them let them in and he wasn't there.

What we know is, Max told them that he was going to find the best price for them for a hotel in Atlantic City for the overnight and that he was gonna let them know where to meet him.

He checked in at the Hard Rock Hotel.

We know that from video cameras that a few people went in with him, three people.

And we know that they left the room.

We know Max locked the door from the inside, and we know that it was the last day of his life.

So, Max took a Xanax.

The police found Xanax and marijuana.

And the Xanax was pure fentanyl.

- Patrice, tell folks what fentanyl is.

- So, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid created in China.

We know that not only did China create this fentanyl, now, it's important to say how important fentanyl is in, you know, end-of-life care for patients who have cancer.

- Right.

- It's very important to help them manage their pain.

And it's 100 more potent than heroin.

Morphine, excuse me, 50 times more potent than heroin.

And the synthetic opioid that was created in China is so dangerous, two milligrams, so if you imagine the tip of a pencil, two milligrams can fit on the very tip of a pencil.

That's how much it takes to kill you.

Now, when China was creating this synthetic opioid, they also created a pill press.

And a pill press is something that you can duplicate any prescription drug out there in the market to look identical, except it's pressed with fentanyl.

So now all of our young people and young adults are maybe exploring with street drugs.

And when I say that, these are prescription drugs.

Most of the time they're prescription drugs, so Adderall, Xanax, Percocet.

These street drugs now, these counterfeit drugs look identical, and the young people are thinking they're taking a prescription pill.

- But Patrice, the thing that strikes me, and thank you for sharing what I can't even imagine is so, how painful this is for you and difficult, but you chose to take this pain, Max's passing, his dying because of fentanyl and do what for others?

Your mission to fight against this scourge is also tied to one of our recent guests, State Senator Holly Schepisi, who's very involved in legislation that actually takes specific steps to prevent young people from finding, dying from Fentanyl.

What's your mission?

- So this is the most important part, and I'm so grateful to Senator Holly Schepisi and her Chief of Staff Alyssa Dawson because when I went to their office, I knew when, I'm in the bowels of hell, losing a child, and I'm in a fetal position every day.

But how do I honor my son and not let any other parent feel this pain?

I knew that we had to do something, and I contacted my senator, my senator's office, and Alyssa Dawson and I worked on this, the joint resolution declaring Max's birthday and the day he left us, July 14th, as Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Day for the State of New Jersey.

The reason- - To do what?

I'm sorry for interrupting, Patrice.

To do exactly what?

- Thank you.

This is so important.

The reason why that bill is so important is because I didn't know about fentanyl.

I knew about it as, you know, end-of-life care.

- Right.

- A drug.

I did not know that it is coming at our children with such speed and velocity that we have lost, right now, the CDC tells us that 84% of children, children, teenagers that are dying today is related to fentanyl poisoning.

So with the grace of God, and, you know, our legislators, so Holly Schepisi jumped on board.

Senator Joe Vitale jumped on board.

And with this bill, in 25 days, Steve, in 25 days, this bill passed both houses.

- To do what, though?

I'm sorry, Patrice, but I want people to understand what it does.

- So the first thing is education and awareness.

We cannot combat it unless parents and young people know what it is, right?

That it's in street drugs, that it's everywhere.

It's in marijuana, it's in cocaine, it's in prescription pills.

And so that's the first thing.

Declaring Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Day for the State of New Jersey is going to let people get an education first to raise awareness, and now next steps are coming.

So that's the next step that we're working on with a new organization that we just started called Love Unlimited New Jersey to- - We actually put up the website.

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

I got a minute left.

Please, Patrice.

- To combine our youth mental health crisis.

So this is what's underlying this crisis right now with fentanyl is our young people are battling with a mental health crisis that we've never seen before combined with fentanyl poisoning that we've never seen before.

We have to run at this with everything we've got, Steve.

So raising awareness and getting our young people involved, teaching them about Narcan, teaching them about fentanyl test strips.

So if they are gonna partake in taking illicit drugs, they can test it and see if there's fentanyl in it.

- To Patrice Lenowitz and the folks she's working with, to the folks in the legislature involved in this legislation that would create greater public awareness, particularly for young people as to the crisis, the epidemic of fentanyl poisoning, we thank you, Patrice, and we'll continue the conversation with you and wish you and your family all the best.

- Thank you so much, Steve.

- Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

PSE&G, New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Fidelco Group.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

Englewood Health.

PNC Foundation.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

And by ROI-NJ.

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