Oklahoma Middle, High School Students Taught The Dangers Of Drugs, Fentanyl At Police Assembly

The DEA says fentanyl is running rampant across our state and country. They say seven out of every 10 pills they've tested in the last year, have tested positive for fentanyl.

Cleveland Police hosted an assembly Thursday for all the Cleveland middle and high school students where victims' families and law enforcement talked about the dangers of drugs.

The families of these victims and law enforcement say this fentanyl crisis is just getting worse and killing loved ones day after day. They say their only hope to reverse this trend is to give these kids a hard dose of reality.

Nearly 800 Cleveland students walked into their gym Thursday and saw the walls lined with 82 posters of young people who have recently died from drug overdoses. Many of them died because of one decision, to take a pill.

"Just in the last month, we've added 12 more families to our group. That's how much fentanyl is destroying our country,” said Diane Searle with Families Supporting Families.

Searle started the group Families Supporting Families after losing her 19-year-old daughter to heroin.

"She loved animals. She was just a very bright light in our family,” said Searle.

The group is made up of families whose kids died because of drugs, and they share their tragic stories, to try to save the lives of others.

"This is what I do to stay sane. I need to educate as many kids as I can on the dangers of illicit drugs. It won't bring my daughter back, but it just fills me up so much that I can make a difference in someone's life,” said Searle.

Pawnee County District Attorney Mike Fisher also spoke about the harsh reality and deadliness of the drug lifestyle.

"Fentanyl we find is mixed and laced in just about every drug that's out there now,” said Fisher.

Fisher says DA's across the state have made it their mission to go after those selling fentanyl, that ends up killing people and charging them with murder. He says 91 percent of all crime in the U.S. is drug or alcohol driven.

"You've got to get to them at a young age. They are very impressionable at this point, and they really believe a lot of the narrative that's out there and unfortunately, the narrative right now is that drugs are cool and that drugs aren't dangerous. That's something I talked with them about. Drugs are not a victimless crime,” said Fisher.