(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/24/2024) (ROCHESTER) – One night in September 2021, Kathy McCarthy fell asleep peacefully, thinking her children were safe under her roof. The next morning, she discovered her 19-year-old son's body, "beyond life-saving measures" following a fentanyl overdose.  

"I was in complete and utter shock and disbelief that my child died under our roof, in the safety of our home because of this drug," said McCarthy, a Birmingham resident. "It's coming through our borders. It's coming through the air. It's coming through the sea."  

McCarthy's husband, James, described their son, Jack, as one of the kindest and gentlest human beings. The two loved mixed martial arts, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they built a gym in the garage for wrestling and kickboxing. James and Jack spent the pandemic months growing closer, beginning a podcast dedicated to MMA.  

On Snapchat – the pictures and messaging app – Jack found a Detroit resident selling Adderall and Xanax, a sedative used to treat anxiety.  

Based on the couple's story, the Xanax that Jack thought he took turned out to be fentanyl, which the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports to be 50 times more potent than heroin as a pain reliever.  

"Jack liked to drink coffee, and I noticed that the coffee was . . . all over the counter, and then the canisters were disheveled," McCarthy said. "I saw Jack on the ground, and he was gone."  

The McCarthy couple spoke at an event hosted Thursday evening by Mike Rogers, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate. The event featured five couples, four with children who died of a fentanyl overdose, and another whose nephew died. 

Everyone sat on couches or cushioned chairs within the Rochester home.  

The homeowner, Rebecca Kiessling, has gained name recognition as an anti-abortion speaker. But she explained it is still hard to get out of bed since her two sons, 20-year-old Caleb and 18-year-old Kyler, died from fentanyl poisoning in 2020. They took pills containing fentanyl during a hotel party, believing they were Percocet.  

"It's hard to function . . . I'm not driving like I once was . . . I was an activist and I did a lot. I was an attorney, and it's like I can't focus," Kiessling said. "(I) was reading through the toxicology report, because all you want to do is find what killed your sons, and imagine having to read how much your son's brain weighed. It's hell."  

She handed Rogers a photo of Caleb and Kyler, explaining she would take them to Republican events, and that he had met them.  

The families talked about wanting the United States to take sterner retaliation actions against countries and cartels affiliated with fentanyl manufacturing and distribution, as well as to address it as a "weapon of mass destruction."  

Additionally, they want groups like Fentanyl Fathers, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to be more welcomed into schools to teach fentanyl overdose awareness to various age groups. 

Rogers said closing the U.S. border with Mexico must happen first. According to U.S. Customs and Border Control, on Sept. 20, within 24 hours, 40 "cellophane-wrapped packages" of fentanyl were seized in the "San Diego Sector," altogether weighing 105 pounds.  

"But I would also put sanctions on China. Any industry that touches anything dealing with the manufacturing precursor of fentanyl should be sanctioned by the United States. Take them out of the international markets. You want to get their attention, that will get their attention," Rogers said, adding that such an action should be done in layers.  

Furthermore, he said that fentanyl-related charges should be ramped up.  

Another man speaking to Rogers was Oakland Township resident John Marenas, who spent his birthday five years ago in a Detroit morgue. In the lobby, waiting to see his 24-year-old son's body, Marenas said an employee told him there might have been 50 bodies linked to reported overdose incidents.  

He said his son, Matt, spent seven years playing ice hockey with a travel team. Although he said their family was tight-knit, Marenas discovered during Matt's early adulthood that he started using heroin at 17 years old.  

"We gave him the option to go to a three-quarter house in Plymouth, and he was there for about two to three months, and all of a sudden he came back on my birthday. We had dinner, Aug. 16 five years ago, at Mod Pizza," he said. "I didn't know that was the last time I was gonna see him. I gave him a hug, a kiss . . . I told him I loved him."  

He said it doesn't matter if someone lives in Birmingham, Downtown Detroit or Pontiac, fentanyl "doesn't care, because it's going to kill you if you get it."  

Democrats Continue Calling Out Rogers For Narcotic-Related Policy Making  

Less than four hours before Thursday’s event, the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) hosted a press conference in Southfield continuing to criticize Rogers for his narcotics-related policy proposals when he was a U.S. House member from 2001 through 2014. It featured Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-Keego Harbor), who said she has two family members struggling with addiction.  

She has one who has been in prison twice, and another lost her nursing license. She said both spent years struggling to recover and to be able to be typical members of society.  

“You see them decline. You see their health . . . their bodies decay. You see their loss of connection to all of us,” Bayer said. “Since 2021, one Michigander has died every four hours from opioid use – overdoses specifically – but in Congress, Mike Rogers, of course, was a leading advocate for increased access to opioids.”  

In late August, Bridge Michigan reported how, in 2003, Rogers introduced legislation to reduce barriers to chronic pain-treating drugs, and had accepted $226,000 in political contributions from opioid manufacturer affiliates.  

Expecting the event to be more like a formal press event, and before MIRS learned that it would be a more intimate family roundtable, Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) said the idea of Rogers holding a press conference on fentanyl overdoses was "pretty rich."  

"Mike Rogers has this clear record that we've all carefully spelled out, and (U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly)) also has a clear record on this subject," Polehanki said. "I think it's rank hypocrisy that he's holding a press conference on this drug that's killing Michiganders when he was a part of the problem, not the solution, during his time in Congress."  

Another speaker at the Democrats' event was Theron Tingstad, chair of the state party's Veterans Caucus. He was a U.S. Army infantry captain who served in Iraq.  

Tingstad said if Rogers was at all connected to his community, he could have seen years ago how people were in the midst of the opioid epidemic.  

"And he's yet to apologize, and he's yet to do anything to hold these companies accountable," Tingstad said.