WRAL Documentary: Crisis Next Door
FentaNYL is absolutely devastating North Carolina families communities people's lives
I call it the devil
I mean it has no boundaries
It doesn't care what color you are
What what race I mean doesn't care if you're male
or female or or rich or poor
It it doesn't matter
It's it's once it it comes for you it's got
you and it calls your name it calls your name
and and there's no going back
You guys the stuff the mere end of it ain't
is enough to kill you
We're talking about just a chemical drug that is 50
times more potent than heroin
And what the drug traffickers are doing is putting it
in all kinds of products
They're putting it with cocaine they're putting it with marijuana
he was a dynamic brilliant talented amusing person
He wasn't just the kid who snorted that heroin had
died
This can happen to or with anyone
fentaNYL is an opioid
And what that means is it's a painkiller in its
pharmaceutical form when it's produced by pharmaceutical companies and approved
by the FDA
It's used for acute and chronic pain
Unfortunately we're talking about fentaNYL from an overdose perspective
We're mostly talking about illicit fentaNYL
And this is fentaNYL that is produced by drug cartels
and used for money making purposes not for health care
As little as two mg can lead to death
If two mg could kill someone why would it be
in these drugs Like why would a drug dealer who's
trying to make money put it in drugs if he
could kill their customer So unfortunately that is all about
business right So they want fentanyl's cheap to produce
And if you can put in a tiny amount of
something and produce a big high then you can make
a lot more money
So obviously if the dealer has the strongest stuff on
the streets that's what these drug users are going to
look for
We are in the deadliest moment of the deadliest drug
epidemic in American history
My name's Jeff Nash
My name's Laurie Nash
And we're talking about our daughter Amanda Nash
Amanda was a fun kid
She always wanted to make the other kids laugh
I think she had a great childhood
She was very involved in her church
She played little league went to girl scouts piano lessons
kind of the all American kids stuff
She left for college went to Appalachian State University and
we started seeing some changes
You know we thought maybe she was getting involved in
in uh just more of the party lifestyle the college
lifestyle
I thought it was just alcohol
I thought it was an alcohol issue or something like
that
So she was gonna take a semester off and a
semester turned into a year and she was working and
and she was working full time and making money and
living in an apartment
She could walk into a room and convince you that
everything's fine and and you look at her and I
mean and why wouldn't it be I mean she's holding
a job she's showing up for work
She's involved
She's singing in a band down there in in Boone
There's a knock at the door
I went to the door and there were two Apex
police officers there He asked me if I knew Amanda
Nash And I said I did
And that was my daughter and I said was she
in an accident and he said she's no longer with
us
and I am I said excuse me He said she
has passed away
He just said it like it was very matter of
fact it was a fentaNYL overdose
And I said oh what And I can remember I
was standing out on the deck and I went There's
no way
And how could she have even tried something like that
Because it made absolutely no sense to me
At the end of the day there's uh Lots of
responsibility for this
I mean there is a drug dealer who has some
responsibility
There is an Amanda herself who is a grown adult
who made up her own mind and made her decisions
excuse me
And then um as a dad it's my job to
take care of her
And that failed
you'd be hard pressed to find a family in uh
in the United States that hasn't been at some level
impacted when you're talking about the numbers that we're talking
about
Little over 75% of drug overdoses in North Carolina involve
fentaNYL in some way
Unfortunately in 2021 we lost the most North Carolinians we've
ever lost to drug overdoses
And that was 4,041 individuals
My name is Will Stevenson
My name is Diane Stevenson and we're here to talk
about our two sons
we had five boys William was the oldest and Parker
was our middle son
I just absolutely loved every moment of being able to
be called their mother
William was full of personality
He just lit up a room and he was always
fun to be around We dealt with his situation with
drugs for about 11 years in high school
I think he started dabbling in pills and then eventually
it became heroin
We knew that if he didn't change his lifestyle that
he was going to end up in jail for the
rest of his life or ultimately he would die
Parker was larger than life
He had an amazing personality
He had a great smile
He was very athletic
And if he were here today he would say that
he was a mama's boy Parker also struggled with addiction
but his was a little different than his brothers He
had gotten married his wife was five months pregnant and
he had decided that he was ready for rehab
It was a 90 day program
He really felt like he was equipped with what he
needed to conquer the world when he came out
when we got the call
Um We were most of us were in the kitchen
Diane had stepped out of the room and she came
back into the room and she hit the floor screaming
My my my baby is dead
And our first thought was William
I mean I think everybody in the room thought it
was William and it was Parker
You know we were all shocked beyond belief
a fentaNYL and heroin overdose
And that's what killed him
It was mostly Fenty but mostly fentaNYL
We all had hoped that
Wow
Now Williams finally got to wake up you know losing
a brother
It has to have him wake up from this terrible
disease
unfortunately it did not
And he says I'm much smarter than Parker was
I never do heroin or meth
I never do drugs alone
which he did do drugs alone because he was alone
when he passed also
I see families that are very intact and then a
kid gets on fentaNYL and cocaine and heroin and it
ruins them and it ruins the family
We got to remember when we come up there was
marijuana
People were not addicting and dying over it
Then cocaine come out and people were addicted to it
but they probably weren't dying over it
Then crack come out was a whole lot more addictive
but it won't kill them instantly
Now you have heroin that is laced with fentaNYL and
opioids is killing people instantly
My name is Christy Barker cummings and I'm going to
talk to you about my son Kevin who died of
an accidental fentaNYL overdose in 2018 He was very very
I I really wanna say he was brilliant
I don't say that about many people
It's not just because I'm his mom
He was off the charts in terms of his intellectual
capabilities his school performance This was a time period when
Zans or Xanax right was sort of all over the
street
So he was hooked
By the time we really knew what was going on
then it was a struggle it was a two year
struggle trying to get him care
It was just a a cycle you know of binging
getting in trouble being sober for a week binging there
was one particularly bad day where he had come home
and sort of vandalized the house because I told him
he couldn't be there intoxicated in front of his younger
brothers
The police
Then at the time in Hillsborough where I lived said
we're gonna press charges on him
And so he was held in jail for 10 days
10 days
At 17 he was treated as an adult and put
into an adult jail
They would sleep with separate from the adults but they
were with the adults in the jail all day
So that that's actually where he met
Um Nathan
Nathan I think was 44 years old you know and
Kevin was 17 and so it was not appropriate for
them to be together you know
So I think Kevin learned that that Nathan knew how
to get access to harder things
They decided to trade uh Kevin was going to trade
some marijuana to Mr Windham in exchange for some heroin
He was celebrating his 18th birthday with this with these
drugs
Kevin got three bundles of heroin which unfortunately not only
did have real heroin in it but it was laced
with fentaNYL and he consumed that and it killed him
so I picked up the phone and I was just
screaming and and then I real I kept I heard
my I heard his dad saying It's Kevin you know
he's dead he's dead
Kevin's dad
And It's surreal
It's so surreal
So we initially decided to charge Mr Wyndham with second
degree murder
Cummings overdosed and Windham was charged with second degree murder
at that time when I first found out I I
felt I felt glad you know like oh it's the
right thing that somebody should have should be arrested and
be held accountable
What we elected to do with the support of the
family was to offer Mr Windham a plea to involuntary
manslaughter still going to prison
But for less time than he would have had
He been convicted of the original charge
Nathan Windham pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter
He'll serve at least two years in prison for the
death of Kevin Cummings
old prison camp road and head south to Beach Street
drive and we are going to interview Nathan Windham
So we're going to the ansen correctional facility
So the prison in ansen I didn't know if Nathan
Windham would talk to us
Why do you want to talk to Nathan Nathan Wyndham
is part of the story
He's in prison right now and an 18 year old
is dead as a result of his actions
Ok
Looks like we're here
Yeah
We're not allowed to bring cameras into the jail
It's just their policy
So I'm going to go in alone
I'll use an audio recorder and record our interview
My name is Nathan
I'm currently at correctional institution
What has fentaNYL done to your life FentaNYL has got
me where I'm at right now I didn't know that
the drugs had fentaNYL in them at the time you
know found out at a later date after I was
arrested but I hear about it everywhere and you said
you got to know Kevin briefly
Yes we were locked up together in Orange County jail
I was in for D W I I'm not sure
what he was in for what was he like He
was very intelligent
You could just tell by the way he talked and
the things you know how bright he was and uh
real outspoken real spunky
I think he was a good kid
He just had a problem
And then
and then they knock him along
I wasn't in my right mind
I wasn't thinking right
I was under the influence of drugs
the same road to count
It just goes to show people out there how how
fast that your life can change
I'm just so I'm sorry if I could change places
with him I would in a heartbeat
He could be a mother a father a brother a
sister a kid
He has no boundaries
The good thing about this is it stopped before we
got into a home
This morning we stopped a vehicle that was loaded with
methamphetamines and fentaNYL
When you stop the drug on the highway and it
does not get into the community and it don't get
into a family member or a sibling or anybody's hands
It's a success
Originally we were seeing fentaNYL flown in from China
That's where a lot of the component chemicals are manufactured
But more recently the fentaNYL components are being sent to
Mexico where they're being manufactured there and driven across the
border through border checkpoints and those drugs are coming all
across this country including here to North Carolina and they
are absolutely devastating people's lives
we have to approach the supply but we also have
to approach demand and that's drug addiction
And so I've been holding the drug companies accountable that
created this crisis in the first place
How did they do this Like you know how are
they To blame
There were three waves of this opioid epidemic
The first wave from 2000 2010 or 12 had to
do with prescription pills and the drug companies were aggressively
promoting these pills to prescribers asserting that they were effective
at treating pain and they were not addicted and it
turns out that neither
of those things are true
And so millions of Americans got hooked on these pills
while these companies were making billions and billions of dollars
when the pills became less available folks started transitioning to
using heroin buying it on the street because heroin was
cheaper than the prescription pills
And now this third wave has to do with Which
is even cheaper than heroin
And that's what's killing people because it's incredibly we're making
them pay over $50 billion
North Carolina share is going to be about $1.4 billion
It has to go to prevention harm reduction treatment or
recovery services
harm reduction is a safe space for people to come
and get clean sterile supplies
Narcan fentaNYL test strips
Basically anything a drug user needs to stay safe
Be safe
Erica Mitton
I am the harm reductionist here
Um for s recovery revolution Simon recovery
My husband and I had substance use disorder
We were addicted to opiates among other things
And unfortunately in December uh December 31 of 2017 I
lost my husband to an overdose I came here to
recovery to put his picture on the somebody someone wall
and it just so happened that those events led up
to they needed a harm reductionist
Do you have some returns Ok
Awesome
I love to see my come back
every day when I come into work and I touch
his picture and I feel him I just know he's
working with me
and we pretty much take all the work that we
do here out to people
Hey you need some supplies
All right
So we distribute fentaNYL test strips
fentaNYL test strips right They can test that substance so
that they can make a better choice for themselves and
know what is in that supply
I I used to say people overdosed
I now say people are being poisoned because people don't
even know what they're getting as far as Narcan
Do you want the intramuscular or the nasal Both people
commonly call it Narcan and that's the opiate reversal medication
The easiest is the nasal spray
Literally anyone can use it
We aren't enabling drug use by distributing Narcan
We're saving lives so that hopefully people can get well
we need some supplies
All right harm reduction is hope short or long in
the depths of addiction
It's important to have hope
Hope gives them a chance to look towards tomorrow
There you are
Thank you
Be safe
I can count on one hand the number of times
I've cried in court and this was one of Nathan
Windham traded drugs with 18 year old Kevin Cummings
Windham was charged with second degree murder
Today he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter And so we
went to court that day knowing that Mr Wyndham was
accepting the plea offer for a case of this magnitude
and many criminal cases the victim the defendant in many
cases they still want a chance to be heard
What I hoped for that day was an opportunity to
speak for Kevin
So what did you think going in that day You
had your pictures right Yeah
Yeah I wanted something that was big and would stand
out you know but a regular photo I I I
didn't think would make the the impact that this this
painting does
You know Kevin was only 18 years old and Different
people look different when they're 18 some 18 year olds
look like adults
He looks a lot like a kid
I've been working with this case for a couple of
years so it shouldn't have hit me the way it
did
But seeing that portrait of Kevin while his mother was
talking about him was um Very um moving
What were you trying to convey I just wanted to
let them know it's you know it's not a day
go by that
I'm not I'm just so I'm sorry And when Nathan
talked what went through your mind His concern I could
see it
He wanted me
He wanted us to know Kevin's family to know how
sorry he was how much remorse how much regret how
much it's impacted his life
And then you and I hugged Nate
Then I saw him standing there and I could see
him reach for me
I had to hug him
You know I just felt their humanity
I said I forgive you
I mean I told him I said I I I
can tell you're really sorry
I thanked him for saying he was sorry
And I told him that I don't blame him
I don't blame Nathan
I have never seen in my experience a man who
just pled guilty to a homicide hug the mother of
the person he's now been convicted of killing
and just changed my life and and I prayed about
it prayed about it to see for her forgiveness
And uh they come true
And it just happened it felt Freeing
Freeing it felt like uh like I was released from
some
chain Yeah Hey good morning how are you My name
is Laura Carden
And I know Christy through the death of her son
Kevin Cummings what The day in the courtroom was uh
something that Nathan and I had been waiting a long
time for and just to simply say I'm sorry because
he was truly sorry for what he had done
And a great moment for him and myself too was
to get the forgiveness that Christie had to give and
to show the The love in that courtroom because I
can't imagine where she's coming from to be able to
give that That was an answered prayer
So Laura amazed me too
This is the first time I've spoken in front of
a crowd of people
She told her story at church one for one sermon
one day Kevin Cummings
will be a name forever in our hearts and to
never be forgotten in our lives
She said I I'm telling this story here but I'm
telling you this this this became my purpose in life
This has now defined my purpose in life
From here out
she's been volunteering with people who have addiction
Are you ready I am
Let's do it together
Absolutely together
we could be our story could be really powerful if
we worked together
You know I love you
I love you moving forward
I would hope that we could change as many lives
as possible by sharing our stories because I know that
our story is not a normal story for anybody
I definitely have a purpose and I hope that that
gives people hope if we have forgiveness for somebody else
no matter what the situation could be it could be
life altering and make things so much better
We were we weren't gonna be quiet anymore People need
to hear about the real lives of normal people that
are losing Children every day
I mean every day and we know we can't save
a child because if we could have saved a child
we would have saved her too
we all tried different things in different combinations of things
and then we each wish we had done the thing
the other person did but we ended up with the
same outcome
Our kids are are dead
There has to be a reason for us going on
if that makes sense our lives going on
I think if there's anybody out there who's having suspicions
about someone they love um maybe they need to hear
a man's story