Angela Kennecke: 0:07

Opioid overdose deaths in the United States have dropped to their lowest level since 2020, according to new CDC estimates. The data indicates that just over 60, 650 Americans died from opioids between June 2023 and June 2024. That's an 18 percent decrease from the previous year. But are these numbers painting the full picture?

Alexis Pleus: 0:34

The real number is probably triple what we're looking at now in terms of like an annual number that we get from the CBC.

Angela Kennecke: 0:43

On this episode of Grieving Out Loud, join me as I sit down with the founder of Truth Farm, that's farm with a PH, to explore the hidden devastation of the opioid epidemic. Her mission? Hold pharmaceutical companies accountable while advocating for those battling substance use disorder.

Alexis Pleus: 1:04

So they have like a primary cause of death, a secondary and a tertiary, so they can list three different. And unless somebody digs down to the third level of determining how a person died, a lot of the overdose fatalities do not get captured.

Angela Kennecke: 1:19

I'm Angela Kenecke, the founder of Emily's Hope and the host of this podcast, Grieving Out Loud. If you or a loved one is struggling with substance use disorder, please seek help immediately. With fentanyl and the drug supply, there's no time to wait. You can find a list of helpful resources and contacts on our website, emilyshope. charity. Well, I'd like to welcome a guest today that I've been wanting to have on the podcast for quite some time, Alexis Ploos with TruPharm, that's P H A R M as in pharmacy or pharma. And she also is the brainchild behind Trail of Truth, which I went to last year in Washington DC. It was an incredible display and we'll get into talking about what that is, but Alexis, welcome to Grooving Out Loud.

Alexis Pleus: 2:19

Thank you so much for having me, and I've been looking forward to being on the podcast.

Angela Kennecke: 2:24

You are a few years ahead of me in this advocacy work. I mean, sadly, sadly, we're both here because we lost children. You lost your son in 2014. Can you tell me about that?

Alexis Pleus: 2:36

Yeah, he was a junior in high school. He was a football player, incredible football player, athlete, wrestler, first game of the season of his junior year, which for, um, someone who's an aspiring athlete is a really important year for them. So first game of his junior year, he injured his knee and needed a massive, uh, knee reconstruction. And he was heartbroken, you know, he was a real emotional kid. He was heartbroken and was determined to wrestle that winter. And so the doctor said the most important thing that you're going to need to do in order to wrestle this winter is pain management. And so physical therapy and pain management and This was 2003, nobody was talking about opioids, nobody warned me, nobody told us to be careful with the opioids that he was prescribed. And I talk about it often that I contributed, you know, I was like, did you take your pain medicine? Well,

Angela Kennecke: 3:33

unknowingly. I mean, you had no idea. Well, yeah.

Alexis Pleus: 3:36

No idea. You were doing what doctors said for you to do. Right. Right. He became addicted and you know, it's really fascinating to me still, all these years later, he didn't tell me, you know, he didn't tell his family at one point in time, like on our way, I think it was like back from a doctor's visit, he said to me in the car, like, I'll never forget it, but he was like, mom, I think I'm starting to like those pills a little too much and I didn't really even know what that meant, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't know the, um, you know. euphoric benefits at that time of the pill. I didn't know the addictive qualities. And so I just said to him, I was like, well, you know, then maybe just don't take them as often or don't take them as much. And I didn't know that that wouldn't be easy for him either.

Angela Kennecke: 4:31

Despite his struggles with substance abuse, Jeff finished high school and went on to college addicted to opioids the entire time.

Alexis Pleus: 4:42

And I had no idea. His use pretty rapidly, he described progressed to heroin, which was a common thing back then that people, you know, he couldn't afford the pills anymore. The doctor wasn't prescribing them anymore. He progressed to heroin and his addiction was under wraps for seven years before I found out.

Angela Kennecke: 5:00

Wow. He was really good at hiding it then. Yeah. Because we knew something was wrong with my daughter the last year, year and a half before her death. And, you know, we were working to hold an intervention because she would never admit what was happening, but there were clear signs that things were not right. He must have really been able to maintain that.

Alexis Pleus: 5:19

Yeah,

Angela Kennecke: 5:20

front.

Alexis Pleus: 5:21

Right, right. Yeah, you know, it was remarkable because he finished college, he had a job, he had his own apartment, so you know, it felt like successful launch as a parent. Yeah. You know, everything seemed to go right.

Angela Kennecke: 5:45

Although Alexis wasn't overly worried about her oldest son, She was deeply concerned about her middle son, who had also begun to struggle with substance use disorder.

Alexis Pleus: 5:59

In a much more chaotic and kind of in your face sort of way. And so I was dealing with this with my teenage son at home. Jeff was living independently and I just had no idea that he was struggling with the same exact thing.

Angela Kennecke: 6:19

Eventually, Alexis found out about Jeff's heroin addiction. He ended up serving time in jail, but it was during that time that he began his journey to recovery,

Alexis Pleus: 6:34

got out of jail and was doing remarkably well. He was just rebuilding his entire life. I was so proud of him and really, I stopped worrying. You know, I just, you know, he was 20 months not using and so I really thought that we were done. You know, I just stopped worrying. I'll never know exactly why he used again. I have my guesses

Angela Kennecke: 7:07

in 2014 for some reason, Jeff relapsed and this time it was deadly. At just 28 Jeff lost his life to a heroin overdose.

Alexis Pleus: 7:19

I have a A theory put together about why he used again, but I don't know exactly, but that's what led to his death.

Angela Kennecke: 7:25

Yeah, so then he went back to the same amount he was using before. Right. And that's when it becomes so deadly. To make matters worse, after Jeff's death, Alexis's middle son continued to struggle with substance use disorder for another five years.

Alexis Pleus: 7:48

So, of course, you know, I lived in fear. Of course. Fear. Now, he's doing remarkably well. He got on Suboxone and used that for six months to taper off of the opioids. He's just doing fine.

Angela Kennecke: 8:07

Meanwhile, Alexis struggles with her grief even 10 years after losing her firstborn child.

Alexis Pleus: 8:16

I just passed the 10th anniversary of losing him. You know, it's weird because. Every time I say it's like a stab in the chest. I don't understand why, you know, an anniversary hurts more, but somehow it does. And sadly, all the work that I have done and all the changes that we've made, I feel this frustration that it's not enough. Overdose fatalities are increasing and people who get submitted to our event, which I'm sure we'll talk more about, but it's like, I see the same exact struggles for those families that our family faced. And so I feel it's been really hard coming up on the 10 year anniversary because it's like I keep reflecting back on all that we've accomplished, but also feel such frustration for how much we're lacking.

Angela Kennecke: 9:03

It's not enough, right? As long as people continue to die and people continue to struggle with substance use disorder and you're right, the stories, I mean, there are some circumstances that change, you know, but they're the same over and over again. And you have these frustrated family members who were unable to get the right help or enough help or help at all. Right. That is something that we continue to see it. I mean, I talked to so many parents and it's like it's a script or something.

Alexis Pleus: 9:32

Right, right. That's exactly right. I know when I lost Josh, I was just, you know, really searching for answers and I found a grief group online, Compassionate Friends Lost Due to Substance Use Related Causes. In first, I was like, I couldn't believe, you know, I was so naive about how bad the epidemic was. I couldn't believe there was a support group just for us. First of all, and then every day when faces were added, it was just like my son's story over and over again, you know, exactly what you said, families struggling to find services, families struggling to find treatment, people who wanted to get well and couldn't get well because the path wasn't made easy for them. And it's really upsetting that 10 years later, we haven't cracked that. Not, you know, we haven't figured that problem out, solved it.

Angela Kennecke: 10:31

Despite her frustrations, Alexa says she's forever hopeful that the nation's opioid epidemic will come to an end. Not only is she optimistic. But she's actively working to prevent other deaths. After his death, and you're dealing with another son who's suffering from substance use disorder at the time, and you start this organization, why call it True Farm?

Alexis Pleus: 11:00

Yeah, I love that question because at the time, and I think a lot of people You know, if they're new to this issue, they're coming into it in the age of fentanyl, so they don't know the whole progression of the issue. When I lost Jeff, they were calling this epidemic a heroin epidemic. The interesting thing is, and I'm a, I'm a data nut, and so I began heavily researching the whole entire epidemic after I lost Jeff, unfortunately after I lost him, I wish I did it before, but at the time they were calling it a heroin epidemic, and at the time the reality is more people died from it. Prescribed opioids, even if they weren't prescribed to them, more people died from prescribed opioids than all other drugs combined. And when I learned that, I was like, well, why are we calling it a heroin epidemic if the reality is more people are dying from pharmaceuticals? Well, we know now why. Because the pharmaceutical companies were doing a really good job of controlling the narrative and trying to make it seem like It was bad people who turned to drugs and heroin was what was killing people, not the pharmaceuticals. And so I said, if I'm going to start an organization, you know, we're always going to tell the truth. That's one thing that we're going to do is commit to telling the truth. And I felt like a lot of the information that was out there was not truthful. Even what I was told in terms of how to address my son's use, both Jeff's and my middle son. It wasn't truthful information, you know, telling me to kick my sons to the curb, telling me that if they, you know, hit rock bottom, they would get better. All of that is not true.

Angela Kennecke: 12:37

I was told all of that too, when I was struggling with Emily in the years, like 2011 to 2015 and those years, high school years, told the same thing.

Alexis Pleus: 12:45

Biggest lie.

Angela Kennecke: 12:46

Tough lie. Yeah. And I realized it didn't work. And thank God before her death, I realized that it didn't work, that I had to always approach her from a standpoint of love. And therefore I kept her in my life. My relationship was so much better with her. But we were told that we, those were the hardest things to do as a parent as well. But you're right. I mean, we were all kind of sold that bill of goods that this, there's just so many narratives that were false and sometimes

Alexis Pleus: 13:10

by good intention to

Angela Kennecke: 13:11

people, right?

Alexis Pleus: 13:13

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Whether it's friends and family or professionals,

Angela Kennecke: 13:17

but yeah, I think it's so important to look at the history of this epidemic we find ourselves in today in 2024. And we do that a lot of the podcast, you know, we go back, I've talked to authors, I've talked to all kinds of people about, you know, the rise of the opioids and the pharmaceutical industry and how that led. You know, to the flood of heroin into this country, and how that eventually morphed into fentanyl, and now it's morphing into other things. Right. Like xylosine and stronger

Alexis Pleus: 13:42

analogs than fentanyl. Right. No, it's totally true. Sometimes it's difficult to stay out of, you know, conspiracy theory realm. Because you just gotta wonder, you know, what in the heck is going on here?

Angela Kennecke: 14:05

Alexis originally founded Truth Farm to try to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable and raise awareness about their role in the opioid crisis. She also wanted to educate families on practical ways to help. Like locking up prescriptions and not pressuring doctors to over prescribe medications. But over time, Tooth Farm has evolved. Now, along with raising awareness, they offer direct support.

Alexis Pleus: 14:39

That's something I never desired to do. You know, I wanted to be an educator, an advocate, or a person who raises awareness, and the need is just so great in our community that once people heard somebody talking about the issue, they just started reaching out for help, and it was a, like, it's been a nonstop, literally constant situation where people reach out to help, which to me shows us that we're still doing everything wrong. Like, You know, we're an agency who doesn't advertise services at all. We don't advertise our services for direct client care, and yet we have 15 to 35 people walk through the door every single day looking for help. And I've told, you know, our public health officials and our county health departments, I can't wait until they put us out of business. Like, I don't want to be a direct care provider. I never wanted to be. What it tells me is that everybody else is failing. When the systems stop failing, they won't need us anymore because we're just a safety in that provider.

Angela Kennecke: 15:38

So what kind of care are you providing directly to people suffering with substance use disorder?

Alexis Pleus: 15:43

Yeah, so we do navigations to care. So if a person needs a family physician, if they need addiction treatment, if they want to get on Suboxone, if they want to be on methadone. Um, if they're continuing to actively use, we provide harm reduction supplies. We feed people literally every single day in our office. The majority of our clients are unhoused. And so a lot of them, you know, struggle living on the street. So we provide, you know, personal care items, tents, sleeping bags, whatever it is that facilitates keeping them alive and as safe as possible.

Angela Kennecke: 16:17

So you're kind of a clearinghouse, really. I mean, you're directing people to care. You're giving them food. You're giving them supplies. There's just a.

Alexis Pleus: 16:23

Yeah, yeah,

Angela Kennecke: 16:23

yeah. Along with providing support services, Alexis launched Trail of Truth, a yearly event in Washington DC where families can honor loved ones lost to substance use. This event also shines a spotlight on critical issues like the need for accessible treatment, the discrimination of people with substance use disorder. And the importance of distributing naloxone. You can find more information about the event, along with pictures from last year's Trail of Truth, by checking out the show notes of this podcast. While you're there, we'd appreciate it if you would rate and review this episode, and please share it with your family and friends. Together, we can make a difference. I was there during a tropical storm last year in Washington, DC. And though you set out tombstones from every state with photos of people we've lost because of substances, whether it be an overdose of fentanyl poisoning or some other cause, but directly related to substances. Yeah. And a little bit about this person. And you had marked off for states. I knew other moms there from, I live in the Midwest, from other Midwestern states. And it was, Right in front of the Capitol building, and I thought it was extremely powerful.

Alexis Pleus: 17:51

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It's one of those things that has become so much more than I ever fathomed it would be. I don't know if you know the history of it, but the first year that we ever hosted the Trail of Truth here in Binghamton, New York, it was an act of activism. Like, it wasn't intended to be an event. It was really intended to force our county to count how many people we were losing to overdoses. And so, yeah, when I lost Jeff, you know, and I started being vocal about it online, people started reaching out like, Oh, I lost my loved one too. I lost my daughter. I lost my son. And the numbers started to just not make sense to me. I naively thought at the time, Oh, our county just doesn't know they're not counting overdoses correctly. So I reached out to our county and they denied it. They said, No, we were doing it right. And so I was like, well, something's wrong here. So I asked families from our community to just send me information. Like if you lose a loved one, send me the information. I created a Google form. It was really basic. People filled it out and sent me information. And by the middle of 2016, it was like June. They said that we had lost, I think it was like 16 or 17 people that year. I had 32. So double, at least double of what? Yeah. And it's like, our county has like a population of between 000 people. I'm like, what are the chances that I would know everybody who has died? Like, you know what I mean? Like, certainly my count couldn't even be correct.

Angela Kennecke: 19:24

So what was it? Why wasn't the county's count accurate? And I often think this about numbers that I see, especially from my state, especially when they're uncommonly low, right? Are all of the fentanyl poisonings, all of the overdoses getting counted as overdoses? Or are they getting counted as heart attacks if it was from methamphetamine? Or that's right, as an investigative reporter, I'm always questioning. So I like your questioning mind as well.

Alexis Pleus: 19:49

Yeah, yeah. So fascinating fact. There's nothing in federal rules or regulations that require coroners to report deaths in a very specific way. There's a lot of flexibility in terms of how they label a death. So a great example is if a person has an overdose and is taken to the hospital and they're put on life support and then they end up Taking the person off of life support. The coroner then at that point in time, or the attending physician has the option to call it heart failure, overdose fatality, right? So there's like all these different options in terms of how they're going to label that death. They often even will ask the family. What do you want this to be? And so, there's really no literal requirement. So they have like a primary cause of death, a secondary, and a tertiary. So they can list three different. And unless somebody digs down to the third level of determining how a person died, a lot of the overdose fatalities do not get captured.

Angela Kennecke: 20:52

So, if it's not listed number one on the death certificate, because I've looked at a lot of death certificates as an investigative reporter. You know, as well as my own daughters, but if it's not listed as the number one cause of death, then it doesn't get counted in the stats, is that, is what you're saying? That's right. Necessarily, if that's the way the county does it. Okay. Right. And your county wasn't doing it that way, and I bet many others don't. That's right. A lot of counties don't. Yeah. I think the overdose and deaths related to drugs and or alcohol. are grossly underreported.

Alexis Pleus: 21:22

Yeah, grossly undercounted. And there have been a couple studies looking at this. People feel that we are, you know, we're probably 40 percent undercounting overdose fatalities nationwide. I don't doubt that for a minute. In our county. So what happened is a result. So, you know, back to the story about the Trail of Truth, I was getting so angry with the county because of their resistance to listen, you know, and to acknowledge what we were saying. I was like, no, I have the names of people who have died. You can't deny this. Their families say it. So I don't care what your death certificates say, their families say it. So I had this vision that we would put these loved ones on tombstones, put their picture on it, put their information, and we would march to our county building, display those tombstones, lay down, trace our bodies. And to me, it was, you can't deny this now. You have to look at us. You have to look at our loved ones. You have to count our loved ones. The results of that was our district attorney did an investigation and he found that we had lost 56 lives at that point in time. So they were underreporting by about 65%, which is just, you know, wild. That act of activism fixed the issue in our county, but you are right, it's not fixed everywhere. All over, we are not counting the overdose fatalities correctly.

Angela Kennecke: 22:44

And then, the importance of counting them correctly is not only to recognize. For the family's sake or that they lost their loved one in this way, but also for services and to tell what kind of problem we have out there and what kind of drugs are in. It's a public health issue, but also to get dollars, federal funding and that kind of thing. But also politicians want to look like this isn't a problem in my district. You know, this isn't a problem in my county, my state, my backyard.

Alexis Pleus: 23:13

Yep, yep, that is exactly what was going on in our county. I literally, you know, we provide consulting services for other counties, and I literally had a meeting with a county this morning who they said, we're certain our numbers are low, but we don't know how to fix it. And I said the exact same thing that you just said to them, look, opioid settlement dollars funding for counties is based on your overdose fatality counts. And so you want to fix this problem. If even just for that, for the fact that you're going to get more resources to help people, you need to fix this problem. And so, you know, it's something that I really wish that every county would look at. And the other thing that I wish when talking about these numbers is We always hear about the overdose fatalities. We're not even hearing about all the ways that people are losing their lives. Sepsis, endocarditis, you know, it's like there's a whole list of ailments that we aren't even counting. And I feel like if those numbers were also publicized annually, people would start to grasp. You know how big this problem really is. The real number is probably triple what we're looking at now in terms of like an annual number that we get from the CDC.

Angela Kennecke: 24:27

Yeah, they say 107, 500 some people died in 2023 of what the CDC calls overdose. You're saying triple that. It could be more than 300, 000. That's right. Which is decent sized city, right? That's right. Just gone. Yes. Have you lost a loved one to overdose or fentanyl poisoning? I'd like to invite you to share their story on our new Emily's Hope Memorial website called More Than Just a Number. They were our children, siblings, cousins, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, and and friends so much more than just a number. You can submit a memorial today on more than just a number dot org. After seeing just how many overdose deaths were happening in her community and how under reported they were, Alexis felt compelled to act, but she admits she wasn't sure where to start with more than 25 years as a licensed professional engineer in design and construction. This was uncharted territory.

Alexis Pleus: 25:47

You know, I have found my path in this work. It's not like I knew what I was doing. Sure. I get that. I totally get that. Looks like I'm figuring it out as I go. But like, to me, it's like that was an act of activism. We were trying to force the county to do something. It didn't really cross my mind as an opportunity for it to be a healing event. And that's what it also ended up being. And so families really loved it. You know, I recognize the importance of families having a place to put their grief. Even me, I bury my grief by doing a lot of work and, and avoiding it. I don't understand that at all. No, I'm exactly like that. Well, you don't. Yeah, I can tell you don't. Yeah. So, you know, families, a lot of people don't have a grave site for their child. A lot of people don't have a tombstone. A lot of people don't have a place to go and put their grief, you know? And so the Trail of Truth became that for families, which I just, I, I didn't know. It still makes me feel emotional every time I think of the importance of the event for people. And it's just wild, the things that happen. I mean, like children posing around their parents tombstone, mothers sitting on the ground, you know, grieving, praying, playing a guitar for their loved one. It's like, it's so moving and so emotional. I'm really grateful to have it turn into something like that. Well,

Angela Kennecke: 27:12

and despite the pouring rain, or perhaps because of it, when you brought it to D. C. It was very impactful and very emotional.

Alexis Pleus: 27:20

Yeah.

Angela Kennecke: 27:20

I don't know how anybody could look at that display and not feel emotional.

Alexis Pleus: 27:25

Oh, I know. I know. The first year, the hurricane was the second year that we did it in D. C. The first year that we did it in D. C., I had left to go back to the hotel to get ready. It was like maybe an hour before the cemetery was finished. It was like half up, you know, so I went back to the hotel and I came back. I almost fell over. Myself seeing it for the first time completed, you know, and at that time it was only 1, 200 tombstones, but 1, 200 tombstones all together in front of the Capitol. What I've started referring to it as is it's a devastating display. I don't know how else to describe it. It's beautiful and it's devastating and painful all at once. It makes its point. Yeah, it does. I feel so grateful for the format of it because we honor each person as an individual, which is really important to me. I see a lot of memorial events, but it's not like the individual being honored and with the tombstones, it's like each individual is actually recognized, honored, embraced, loved. But then bringing them all together is this display that is just like you can't deny the gravity of the situation when you see all of those tombstones together.

Angela Kennecke: 28:42

Right. And what number are you up to now?

Alexis Pleus: 28:45

We have 3, 100 tombstones and submissions now. And

Angela Kennecke: 28:50

that really is just a drop in the bucket. I mean if you went back a decade.

Alexis Pleus: 28:54

Gosh. Just a drop.

Angela Kennecke: 29:04

Alexa says her organization is taking a year off from the Washington, D. C. event and instead taking Trail of Truth on the road. The tour was in Atlanta for the presidential debate, as well as the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Alexis Pleus: 29:22

In what we really have taken on tour is the painting of the tombstones. But we, at our New York State Opioid Settlement Board hearing, we went to that, I think it was in like April, and we decided to take our tombstones and paint them at the meeting. So they have like a five hour long meeting. We've been really frustrated with what's been happening with our Opioid Settlement Board. And so we thought, we'll show you the results of inaction.

Angela Kennecke: 29:49

Why have you been frustrated? Tell me why you've been frustrated.

Alexis Pleus: 29:52

The funds aren't rolling out quickly enough. They're going to the same exact people who have let our kids die.

Angela Kennecke: 29:58

When you say that, you mean they're going to

Alexis Pleus: 30:01

In my opinion, right now, treatment in the United States is a failing system. You know, treatment is important, but it's a failing system. If you look at their statistics, their numbers aren't good. If we had the same rates of success for, say, cancer or heart conditions, we would fix it because we would know how abysmal it is. So I'll just throw out a few numbers, but let's say 30 day inpatient treatment has about a 13 percent success rate. That's it. And people don't know that. So families think, Oh, I'm going to send my loved one away. We're going to go to inpatient treatment. They're going to get better. I did the same thing. My son went to treatment. He came home. He only got three weeks of treatment because that's all insurance would pay for.

Angela Kennecke: 30:46

Because insurance dictates. Yes.

Alexis Pleus: 30:48

Right. He came home and returned to use and I was angry with him because I was like, you went to treatment, you know, because families don't know, they don't understand how hard it is for people to get well. It's a failing treatment model. And so 30 days of inpatient has about a 10, you know, 10 to 13 percent success rate. We only improve those numbers when we get up to like 90 days of inpatient treatment. Medication assisted treatment has a much better success rate, but still we're looking at like 60, 70 percent success rate. So we need to fix the treatment system and the treatment industry. We need to fix the way that they operate. But what we continue to do is just dump money into these systems and we don't force them to fix how they're providing treatment. And so in New York state, our opioid settlement dollars are being poured into all the same providers who have really led to our kids deaths. And I think that we need to examine what treatment looks like, fix the treatment system, and increase capacity, and we need to make sure that we have harm reduction fully funded. Because harm reduction is the thing that's keeping all the people alive while treatment is failing them.

Angela Kennecke: 32:02

Right. You are absolutely correct. Treatment will fail, that people can't get into treatment, and then people want to withhold harm reduction because they think it encourages use.

Alexis Pleus: 32:14

Right. And the reality is, until we don't fail people anymore, it's our obligation really to keep them alive. Yes.

Angela Kennecke: 32:31

There's still much to be done in improving substance use disorder treatment and shifting public perception. Alexis remains hopeful. She believes bringing the trail of truth to the New York State Opioid Settlement Board made an impact, even if it was a small one.

Alexis Pleus: 32:50

It was just incredibly powerful. I think there were seven of us sitting there painting tombstones. Their meeting is five hours long. They had a chair rail in the room, like a wooden wainscoting and a chair rail around the room. And so as we finished painting the tombstones, we went up and we put them against the wall, sitting on that chair rail, you know, and get full body chills thinking about it again, because it was just so powerful. And they have a public comment period. And so we, you know, when each of us spoke, we brought it up. This is a result of inaction. This is a result of poor spending. You know, when the meeting ended, all of the Opioid Settlement Board members came and talked to us. I think they realized the importance of doing that and acknowledging our loved ones.

Angela Kennecke: 33:41

Alexa says her group has four key demands during the Trail of Truth. Immediate access to treatment, an end to medical discrimination, increasing access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone. and greater transparency in how opioid settlement funds are used.

Alexis Pleus: 34:01

We went to the RNC, we went to the DNC, we spoke to hundreds of people at Holt's, hundreds, hundreds. Not one person disagreed with what we are asking for. The solutions truly are non partisan. This doesn't have to lean left, doesn't have to lean right. These are really basic solutions that we should have already implemented. And When people try to say, well, hasn't this person done this wrong or that person done that wrong? It's like they all have done things wrong and they all have the opportunity to do things right, right or left, they could all do it right.

Angela Kennecke: 34:39

Right. And when people want to make it about one issue, such as the border, which, you know, we know there are problems at the border, but we also know that it's being smuggled and also dealt in this country by other Americans to other Americans. I just, it drives me insane because it's not like one party has an answer to solve this very complex issue.

Alexis Pleus: 35:02

And you know, one of the things that I remind people of is like, I lost my son 10 years ago. We've had a Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, like we've had different people in the White House and no one has really solved the issue. And I personally don't think that any one of them give it the level of attention that it deserves. And that, you know, that's across the board.

Angela Kennecke: 35:26

Right. I think there's a bit of fatigue out there. Yeah, so much is competing for our attention now. You look at your social media feed and it seems that all is wrong with the world. If they haven't been personally affected by this crisis, they're less likely to tune into it or to make it a focal point. But I do say that we have to be reaching a tipping point with the way the numbers are that everyone has been affected in some way.

Alexis Pleus: 35:50

I think you're right, you know, it's the fatigue, but what I fear more is that it's kind of some kind of complacency, like we've gotten used to these numbers, we've gotten used to the hearing about overdoses, having gone through this now for 10 years. I'm really concerned about where we are right now.

Angela Kennecke: 36:09

How do you think we changed that?

Alexis Pleus: 36:12

I think it's rising up. You know, I've been talking to a lot of friends who were doing the work before I was even, and I know when I first started doing advocacy work, there were places that I could go to join marches. So, you know, I was looking back to pictures to try to figure out, like, What were the years? Because I know there were years that I went to D. C. and there were like 4, 000 people there marching. It was like 2015, 2016, 2017. And there were 4, 000 or 5, 000 people in D. C. showing up for this issue. I don't know why, but it's really hard to get people to unify and come out for this issue anymore. Well, it could

Angela Kennecke: 36:49

be because of the pandemic could be a big part of it. And then also because people are so polarized today and really get people together. It could be a combination of those things, but that's interesting that that's the time frame because that's before I lost my daughter, before I was involved. I mean, I didn't get involved until 2018, 2019.

Alexis Pleus: 37:09

Like I said, I'm forever hopeful and optimistic, so I just keep trying, you know, but I think it's important to always mention the United States has the highest overdose fatality rate in the world.

Angela Kennecke: 37:19

Yeah.

Alexis Pleus: 37:20

The highest in the world. It's like on one hand, it's really discouraging that there's so much work to be done. On the other hand, there's so much work to be done that we can all find some way to have an impact. And so, I think if we all just do what we can, even if it's just raising awareness.

Angela Kennecke: 37:39

I always say it's going to take all of us joining hands together, especially those impacted personally by this, to really turn the tide, to turn this ship around. And I really believe that, and we're all working kind of in our corners of the United States, the people that I talk to every day on this podcast or every week. People I run into and the people I collaborate with, I mean, it's going to take all of us. There's no competition. I'm just grateful for you and the work that you started. I want to see the same things that you do, but you can't necessarily do that in the middle of the country. That's where I am. Right. But it's going to take all of us. And then when we do come together at these national events or whatever, you know, we show this kind of unity that. And we come from all walks of life and we're all all colors and all socioeconomic groups and you know, yes, this is a universal problem in this country. 100 percent totally

Alexis Pleus: 38:31

agree with you

Angela Kennecke: 38:36

and Alexis has plenty in store in her corner after the Trail of Truth road tour wraps up. She's planning another event in Washington D. C. On September 27th 2025.

Alexis Pleus: 38:49

We are hoping that by having the date set long in advance that we'll be able to get a lot of folks to D. C. We are looking for partners who will help support the work either through, you know, financial support, but then also what I would really love to see happen in D. C. is other organizations host. Whether it's healing activities or advocacy activities. But last year we had families travel from 40 states to get to DC. So we had a lot of people from all across the country. I would love to see something there for them, you know, that has a place that they can channel their grief, whether it's into advocacy or into healing, whatever. I would really like to see other things happening in D. C. for them. We can't do it all. So we're, you know, I'm just looking for partners and partner organizations. So that's what I'll be focusing on for this coming year is really finding people that can partner with us and make sure that we have families really supported when they come to D. C. next year. Yeah.

Angela Kennecke: 39:52

Well, that sounds wonderful. And count us in. Yay. Good. Right. All right. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you. It was really great being here with you. And thank you for taking the time to learn more about our nation's opioid crisis. To listen to more episodes, read my blog, and stay up to date on the latest news about addiction, fentanyl, and mental health, visit our website at emilyshope. charity. You can find a link in the show notes. Thanks again for listening. Until next time, wishing you faith, hope. and courage. This podcast is produced by Casey Wundenberg King and Kaylee Fitz.