Katrina Simmons & Kristi Kastler on Grief, Addiction & Fighting The Fentanyl Epidemic

So, so what do you wish more people understood about addiction from a parent's perspective?

Don't shame the addict.

Yeah, breaking stigmas.

Don't shame the parents that are trying to help them.

It's the only illness that I know-

Who shamed you for trying to help your son?

Oh, gosh.

It's the comments that people make.

It's-

Well, you're damned if you do.

You're en-- if you enable, you're an enabler, and now the time of fentanyl gives you no-- if they leave the house, there's a risk of them at any second taking something that someone gives them and then-

Wait a minute.

You guys, hold on.

You guys didn't have a podcast until after your children were murdered, okay? So who, uh, please help me to understand, who gave you grief over-

Mm

... getting your children help?

First and foremost, it's us.

Us.

It's ourselves.

As a mother, we're here-

It is us

...

it is our job to protect our children.

Thank you.

It's us.