WINONA, Minn. - According to the Minnesota Department of Health, fentanyl is involved in 92% of all opioid-involved deaths. With that rising statistic, a group of moms is taking action.
The Little Free Libraries in Winona are being stocked with things like Narcan by moms who lost their sons to fentanyl poisoning.
RIPple Drug Education and Awareness secretary Diana Benson says, "this is an opioid reversal medication so anyone who is experiencing an opioid incident or an opioid overdose, you simply squirt it in their nose."
It's an effort to provide resources and work to save a life, conducted by mothers who weren't able to do the same.
Benson says, "my son is Connor Perkins, he suffered from anxiety and depression and had been prescribed Xanax from his doctor in the past and he wasn't regularly seeing a doctor so he purchased Xanax on the street and it turned out it had fentanyl in it and it killed him."
These drugs are laced, majority of people believe they are taking another drug- like 44 year old- Josh Fox.
RIPple Drug Education and Awareness president Malia Fox says, "he was found by his 20 year old daughter, lying on his kitchen floor, he had said a couple weeks before his death 'mom people are dying of fentanyl and no one is talking about it.'"
This lack of education sparked Malia Fox to spread the word about this illicit drug to middle school, high school and college students. On Oct. 23, the moms visited students at Cotter.
Fox says, "it's a difficult subject but we take it so that they will be aware, we give them some hard information, it's hard for us and it's scary for them. We just don't want any other parent to feel the pain of losing their child."
Malia, Diana and another 'angel' mother created the non-profit RIPple to continue to bring this education to schools and communities and prevent deaths like this from happening.
Fox says, "as our RIPple wristbands say, 'stay safe, stay alive."
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicated that there were more than 107,000 drug deaths in the US last year.
The group will be speaking at Hiawatha Valley Education District on Oct. 29, followed by a visit to Winona Middle School. For more information, here is a link to RIPple's website.