A Flower Mound woman who lost her son to heroin addiction is applauding President Trump for fighting the nation's opioid crisis.
"We are in an epidemic where we are all paying attention," said Kathy O'Keefe. "I mean, even people that... this would never happen in my family are paying attention."
O'Keefe knows all too well. Tuesday marks eight years since a heroin overdose claimed the life of her son, Brett.
Today, President Trump unveiled his plan to fight the opioid epidemic. His proposal includes the death penalty for high-volume traffickers. He wants to decrease demand by cutting the number of prescription painkillers by a third within three years. Increased treatment options and increased access to drugs that reverse overdoses are also part of the plan.
"I want to win this battle," said Mr. Trump. "I don't want to leave after 7 years and have this problem."
The President will also ask congress for $6-billion for the initiative.
"This is the first administration I've seen to actually do something about it, other than 'Just Say No' and have a program," said O'Keefe.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
The Trump plan includes treatment, education and enforcement, including the death penalty for high level dealers which O'Keefe supports. She wants to see tougher penalties for pill-pushing doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.
"We have to look at who are our biggest distributors of drugs," she said. "Big pharma is pretty big. And they've got the doctors pushing drugs. Are we sentencing them to death? No, we're not going to be doing that, I'm sure."
O'Keefe has turned her grief to advocacy. After Brett's death, she formed the group "Winning the Fight" -- WTF for short -- to help other North Texas families battling addiction. Earlier this month a letter she wrote to the President got Kathy invited to a White House summit on the opioid epidemic.
"You know, we really need to address why we're doing so many drugs," she remarked, scrolling through online article after online article dealing with drug addiction.
An answer to a question she says which can't be ignored.
"It's too big right now," she said. "It's too big."
