Speaker 1: This episode discusses drug use and overdose, which can be
Speaker 1: triggering to some. If you or someone you know is
Speaker 1: struggling with addiction and needs information, please visit www dot
Speaker 1: s A, m h s A dot gov or call
Speaker 1: the National Helpline at one eight hundred six six to
Speaker 1: h E l P for twenty four hour free and
Speaker 1: confidential help. Hey y'all, Hey, what's up? And welcome to
Speaker 1: Let's Red Table that I'm Tracy t Row and I'm
Speaker 1: Carl Pressley. Listen, how are you feeling to day? Tracy?
Speaker 1: So amazing? Every day amazing. That's how I'm feeling. For me.
Speaker 1: You know, I already got a little jingle, So every
Speaker 1: day amazing. Because it's clean up time, everybody do your part.
Speaker 1: My clean up has been a little slow. I've been
Speaker 1: a little slow movement, a little bit everything. But let
Speaker 1: me take you. Okay, you know how you just touch
Speaker 1: one thing and then moved to the bank. But the
Speaker 1: big project I've been working on my backyard. So now
Speaker 1: let me tell you what I'm doing. Okay, Okay, tell
Speaker 1: us about it. Last year this time, where were we quarantined? Oh,
Speaker 1: come on, Carl. Last year this time we were getting
Speaker 1: ready to go somewhere fun. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The
Speaker 1: years of COVID have blurred together. Excuse me, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it is almost our anniversary of Yes, yes, that up
Speaker 1: going to the house. We went to the big house, y'all,
Speaker 1: and we ain't talking about jail. We went to the
Speaker 1: smith House for three years. The Lord is such a
Speaker 1: blessed be here for the entire rt T. The backyard
Speaker 1: was beautiful, and so I was inspired. I'm working on
Speaker 1: the backyard. It's literally changing the furniture that's in the patio,
Speaker 1: furniture in the backyard, and upgrading some other stuff. So
Speaker 1: we are in progress right now. So I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: you close because let me tell you, I'm gonna be proud.
Speaker 1: I feel like a before and after. It needs to happen.
Speaker 1: We got but like, we've been in this house for
Speaker 1: ten years, and so some of the stuff that was
Speaker 1: there it's ten years old or older. Well, no, it
Speaker 1: makes sense. I did the same type of thing in COVID.
Speaker 1: I did a whole like yard re hall and don't
Speaker 1: you follow me on Instagram? Yeah, you got a lot
Speaker 1: going on on. I got a whole little TV show
Speaker 1: called Outside with Carra where I go outside, and I
Speaker 1: examined the bugs though, because this is what it is.
Speaker 1: I examined the books the bugs and the squirrels that
Speaker 1: they do a lot in the yard, and I'm always
Speaker 1: out there creating and resting and relaxing. Okay, what does
Speaker 1: Bella have to say about these books? Bella, she's no
Speaker 1: leaving yard with me when she's home part time she is.
Speaker 1: She is the part time dog. She is the part
Speaker 1: time dog. She is home. It is summertimes, so we
Speaker 1: know she's gonna take some longer walks in the evening.
Speaker 1: Who knows that she'll come back. She stayed with her
Speaker 1: second family. But yeah, so I'm outside and I examined
Speaker 1: the books. Over to day. I found a praym Mansis
Speaker 1: that was dope. Yes, alright, but you know what we're
Speaker 1: gonna hear about this episode. This episode was incredibly informative,
Speaker 1: but it was equally heartbreaking car hearing about how the
Speaker 1: poison how fitting All, has infiltrated recreational drugs and killed
Speaker 1: so many people. For those who don't know exactly what
Speaker 1: fenton All is, it's a synthetic opioid and it's used
Speaker 1: pharmaceutically to treat severe pain like for advanced cancer patients,
Speaker 1: and it is fifty to one hundred times more potent
Speaker 1: than morphine according to the c d C. That's some
Speaker 1: serious potency. Okay, but the heartbreak from me. I loved
Speaker 1: Michael kay Williams. I thought he was such a phenomenal talent.
Speaker 1: To lose him like that, there were several moments, and
Speaker 1: then to see the heartbreak that his nephew had and
Speaker 1: to find him. And Olivia's story, where do we it's
Speaker 1: allowed to unpack with this episode? What was something super
Speaker 1: impactful to you? Even get into it. Olivia's story broke
Speaker 1: my heart because what would have been something that you
Speaker 1: and I could have done back in the day. Sneaking
Speaker 1: out hooking up with some guy would have just been
Speaker 1: a story we would have told our girlfriends. She literally
Speaker 1: lost her life because of it, and the hurt oh
Speaker 1: and her mother and her father. It just it was
Speaker 1: just heartbreaking. Not even just Olivia, but Kate friends and
Speaker 1: one night woke up and was paralyzed herself. I got
Speaker 1: something to say about that. Now, I already noticed such
Speaker 1: a subject for you, because I felt like she's at
Speaker 1: the table she was. It's still a little nonchalant in
Speaker 1: some conversations. Is that what you thought? It felt like
Speaker 1: it right. We're gonna get into the comments later. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about it. I just think about how there's such
Speaker 1: a ripple effect, how many people were impacted by those stories.
Speaker 1: Is just the multiplying factor of heartbreak for me. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Gammy Willow and Jada, you guys did a
Speaker 1: really good job. Oh yeah, Oh, they're touching a hard
Speaker 1: topic this season. Who had the meeting and sale? We're
Speaker 1: digging deep this year. I think that's what's happening with
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Absolutely, we've had time to be introspective and
Speaker 1: dick deep and say what is really going on, what
Speaker 1: is really happening with myself, what's happening with my neighbor,
Speaker 1: what's happening with my family? And then what do you
Speaker 1: plan on doing with your life? The awareness is necessary.
Speaker 1: People need to understand the dangers in general before they
Speaker 1: go out there and try to solve their problems another way.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to hear from you our community. This week,
Speaker 1: we asked our online Red Table Talk community. After learning
Speaker 1: about the dangers of fitting all these drugs, have you
Speaker 1: reconsidered recreational drug use or had conversations about staying safe
Speaker 1: with your loved ones. Here are some of your answers. Carl,
Speaker 1: you want to go first. I see that. I heard
Speaker 1: Jason said everybody I know is on drugs. They want
Speaker 1: to die, obviously, and they do not want help. It's
Speaker 1: hard to say that so directly like that, but I
Speaker 1: understand you, Jason. It seems like some people out here
Speaker 1: two sheets to the wind, and some people will say,
Speaker 1: but I think some people truly feel like they don't
Speaker 1: have a choice. I think that's what it is. You
Speaker 1: think they don't have a choice. I think some people
Speaker 1: feel like they don't have a choice, like they may
Speaker 1: not know other alternatives, or they may know that I
Speaker 1: did that last weekend, so I'll do it again, or
Speaker 1: the people that are around you are doing it, so
Speaker 1: you go ahead and do what's around you, do what
Speaker 1: you see. Yeah, that's tough. Maggie Evans shout out to you,
Speaker 1: Memphis Sister friends. Red Table Talk community member said the
Speaker 1: only drug I've ever done is a couple of pot
Speaker 1: gummies when I was freaking out because my dog was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with terminal cancer. I made it forty eight years
Speaker 1: without a single drug. Those gummies were bio and I'll
Speaker 1: never do it again. That's my entire personal experience with drugs.
Speaker 1: I think recreational drugs, by and large, she says, should
Speaker 1: be legalized. Our drug laws are stupid and disproportionately affect
Speaker 1: people of color. A man of that, Maggie. If you're
Speaker 1: going to use them, then you have to make an
Speaker 1: informed choice and accept that your use may result in
Speaker 1: your death. Unless you know one hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: supply chain that created that product, you are rolling the dice.
Speaker 1: That's literally why I've never done drugs, except for those
Speaker 1: damn dispensary gummies barf emoji. I didn't want to wind
Speaker 1: up brain damage or worse. Maggie. You had a lot
Speaker 1: to say, and that was a lot to say. That
Speaker 1: was true, Maggie. We feel you. I was scared away
Speaker 1: from drugs too. I've heard about that story of the
Speaker 1: basketball player I can't remember his name. Yes, yes, one
Speaker 1: time and was gone len Bias. It was before my time,
Speaker 1: but I definitely came up and heard that story over
Speaker 1: and over again. Yeah, it was key and just me
Speaker 1: thinking twice whenever I was out, not like people were
Speaker 1: doing lines and colak at the party but it was
Speaker 1: definitely something in the back of my head. Another comment
Speaker 1: we have is I'm scared to death about using any
Speaker 1: drug that has not been prescribed for the use of
Speaker 1: treating an illness or condition. There can even be adverse
Speaker 1: effects of prescribed drugs, So why would you trust street
Speaker 1: drugs from folks who were trying to make as much
Speaker 1: money as possible by extending in stretching the amount of
Speaker 1: the drug for their greater profit. To me, it's a
Speaker 1: no brainer not to use drugs in a recreational way.
Speaker 1: You may only get one opportunity to make that decision,
Speaker 1: and not from Diane Feeling Cook. Thank you, Dane. In
Speaker 1: our communities, I hear you too. People do not have
Speaker 1: your best interest in mind. I think we're gonna tap
Speaker 1: into that a little bit as well, like intentional drug
Speaker 1: use and do you trust the person you're getting it from.
Speaker 1: So many things to factor in and consider before you
Speaker 1: even use something. We feel your Dianne. Yeah, Diane Feeling
Speaker 1: Cook is right. I'm with her in the heck. I
Speaker 1: can tell you I don't even want drugs that have
Speaker 1: been prescribed to me if they're too strong. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you something, cal I took. I had a secret
Speaker 1: thumb one time, and what I tell you, I took
Speaker 1: that prescription narcotic and I felt like my face was melting.
Speaker 1: No thanks, wait wait wait wait did you say melting?
Speaker 1: I promised you taking it was oxy. Okay, okay, it
Speaker 1: was too too strong for you. It wasn't too strong.
Speaker 1: If anybody ever tells you I'm popping peels, just know
Speaker 1: that is It's the worst line they ever told, because
Speaker 1: that is not happening. When I took that dog on
Speaker 1: oxy that was ride for melting pain management after surgery.
Speaker 1: I sat there and I promise you, I felt like
Speaker 1: my right side of my face was melting off. Did
Speaker 1: you touch it? I didn't touch it. I was like,
Speaker 1: my face is melting. This is this is your example
Speaker 1: right here. I don't know who needs to hear this.
Speaker 1: You don't have to live it to learn from it.
Speaker 1: Please know that Tracy's face was melting one time and
Speaker 1: she didn't last. I mean, how many examples do you need? Okay?
Speaker 1: All right? Well, thank you for sharing your story as well, Tracy,
Speaker 1: and thank you so I read table talk community. Man.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you always chiming in and giving us your comments.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break, but when we get back,
Speaker 1: we'll be joined by two guests from our Red Table
Speaker 1: Talk community. We're welcoming to fellow RTT community members onto
Speaker 1: let's Red Table bat. I'm so glad that Debora Fields
Speaker 1: Harris is at the virtual Red Table today. Debora is
Speaker 1: actually joining us from mrs it Be, where she works
Speaker 1: as an HR manager for a manufacturing company. Deborah has
Speaker 1: witnessed the dangers of fitting all lace drugs at her
Speaker 1: job and in her family. So seeing that up close
Speaker 1: personal relationship with that she can actually see and share
Speaker 1: with us today how deeply harmful it is. So thank
Speaker 1: you Debora for coming and for being willing to just
Speaker 1: share your experience with us today. Hello, everyone, excited to
Speaker 1: be here. Hey Debro, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to introduce our other amazing guest, April Ryan,
Speaker 1: who has been a part of our Red Table Talk
Speaker 1: Memphis Sister Friends community since two thousand eighteen. I'm really
Speaker 1: grateful that you're able to share your unique perspective on
Speaker 1: drug use as you have tried councling our cottage. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about that, but only because they've been prescribed
Speaker 1: to you. So thank you so much for being with
Speaker 1: us on less Red Table that April. Thank you, thank you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you both, thank you both. We appreciate you, guys,
Speaker 1: says the part what where we go? What of the show?
Speaker 1: Where we reveal which moments made us pause, rewind, take
Speaker 1: that back and listen again. Wait what, Cara, we had
Speaker 1: some moments for our wait what moments? Let's talk about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of moments in this episode, so
Speaker 1: let's just kick it off by discussing with our guests
Speaker 1: the first moment, which is when Jada asked Gami if
Speaker 1: she would have stopped using drugs if she'd known that
Speaker 1: finnol was on the streets. Do you think that would
Speaker 1: have helped you stop? Absolutely not really, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that it wasn't because I'm o d before I would
Speaker 1: definitely be dead and that there's no question in my
Speaker 1: mind about that, which is heartbreaking from me because first
Speaker 1: of all, we love Gam, we love all of our
Speaker 1: people friends, and just this episode brought a lot of
Speaker 1: those things to like just knowing they wouldn't have stopped
Speaker 1: no matter what. So, did you notice how Gam gave
Speaker 1: you a certain look? Before Jada asked that question, she
Speaker 1: really was looking at her like, do you want to
Speaker 1: really ask me that? That moment right there really touched
Speaker 1: for me simply because my mom, as beautiful as she
Speaker 1: was and did the best that she did, she did
Speaker 1: have her own struggles, and drugs was one of them.
Speaker 1: Just this gammy head. She was addicted to crack. She
Speaker 1: was one of those functioning drug gags where she held
Speaker 1: down a government job. Once the job found out about it,
Speaker 1: they sent her to rehab and she got better. That
Speaker 1: really touched home. And I put myself in that situation
Speaker 1: and wonder if my mom knew this powerful drug was
Speaker 1: out there, was she had successfully gone through rehab. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the Gamy said no because she was just
Speaker 1: knee jerk, honest. But if you're in the midst of addiction,
Speaker 1: I guess there's really no way to say, well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to wait and not do that one versus this one.
Speaker 1: If you're literally truly pursuing a high. Never what do
Speaker 1: you think it resonates with me growing up and South Memphis.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you recall my cousin Robin,
Speaker 1: she has been on drugs probably twenty five years since
Speaker 1: she was about ninety or twenty. She went from crack
Speaker 1: to meth and then meth to heroine. And she's had
Speaker 1: some mental situations and severe medical episodes in her life
Speaker 1: and now she's unfit and all and her mom is
Speaker 1: just going through And so recently she came to Memphis,
Speaker 1: her family visited. She ended up getting left behind, and
Speaker 1: my heart is going out because memphisis not the place
Speaker 1: to be when you are drug used or you addicted
Speaker 1: to drugs, being out there on the streets, and like
Speaker 1: right now, we don't know where she is. And he
Speaker 1: had gone back home with her family, maybe they would
Speaker 1: know where she is. They know where the drug house is.
Speaker 1: This girl looks like the Night of the Living Dead.
Speaker 1: And that's where it resonates with me dealing with this girl,
Speaker 1: and that's where it's sitting with me. First of all,
Speaker 1: I appreciate both of you being so honest and sharing
Speaker 1: your experiences with such candor, because it's not easy. It's
Speaker 1: not easy having family members on drugs. What are the
Speaker 1: weight What moments for me that just I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you all the truth got all over me. Was when
Speaker 1: Kate said, after losing three friends, now y'all saw this episode.
Speaker 1: Three of her friends were dead from fitting All, and
Speaker 1: then her warning was like, maybe I lived to talk
Speaker 1: about this because people mess up. Man, It's okay to
Speaker 1: start from the bottom and you know, kind of dig out.
Speaker 1: I don't know, to be careful with your drugs. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you all, but I want to know
Speaker 1: from y'all, because I'm gonna tell you from me. I
Speaker 1: was like, what the heckle check on? How are you
Speaker 1: talking about? Wait careful to drugs? If anybody could be
Speaker 1: a thing gonna advocate for someone to say, I don't
Speaker 1: advocate using drugs. Here's what happened to me, and just
Speaker 1: be a little bit more aggressive with the whole message
Speaker 1: and warning about how powerful and dangerous fitting All is
Speaker 1: and that she's seen it firsthand. She literally almost died herself.
Speaker 1: But to say be careful with your drugs, okay, So
Speaker 1: y'all can tell how I felt about it, because I
Speaker 1: was on fire when I saw that. Tell me what
Speaker 1: was your reaction, especially for both of you having loved
Speaker 1: ones who are on drugs, How does that resonate with you?
Speaker 1: What she said with loved ones, they just will not
Speaker 1: admit an addict will never admit to their problem. And
Speaker 1: that's one thing is they'll say, oh, I'm not a user,
Speaker 1: or oh I'm not on drugs. The first step is
Speaker 1: if you want to be out of it, you would
Speaker 1: first admit to the problem. And see they're never they
Speaker 1: will never get help because they were in denial. That's
Speaker 1: my biggest problem. This might be why she just said
Speaker 1: be careful with your drugs, like she literally watched three
Speaker 1: friends pass away and we're still talking about it as
Speaker 1: if just be careful versus girl, this is deadly exactly.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I was gonna say. Maybe that's the
Speaker 1: point of view. She was looking at it, like she
Speaker 1: knows that people are still going to you. People are
Speaker 1: still going to abuse. At least, if you're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: be careful with it. I feel where you're coming from, Tracy.
Speaker 1: But at least she did heat a warning be careful,
Speaker 1: get it from a steady person, get it from someone
Speaker 1: you trust. You know what I'm saying. But you know
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask this question. I'm not trying to be funny,
Speaker 1: but y'all think people pray for the drugs. Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: I believe my cousin takes the Lord went there in
Speaker 1: the crack house. I believe it. I'm talking about it
Speaker 1: because the reality is to your point, April clean needles
Speaker 1: and things like that. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait,
Speaker 1: it's a wait. What within the wait? What do people
Speaker 1: pray the way they pass? So you're saying it's prey
Speaker 1: puff puff pan, it should be? Should it not? Could
Speaker 1: it be? You know some friends in COVID that were
Speaker 1: smoking with each other and I was like, y'all still
Speaker 1: y'all still sharing? They were smoking and COVID you're still
Speaker 1: sharing blunts and COVID still sharing. But see, I think
Speaker 1: they just take the Lord with them and they say, well,
Speaker 1: just be careful. I'm just what I'm hearing. This is
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing. I'm gonna I'm gonna say this. If
Speaker 1: people ain't praying over their drugs with fil being put
Speaker 1: in everything they need started absolutely need, because this is
Speaker 1: the thing. Even if they're not stopping to call on
Speaker 1: the Lord and actually truthfully pray, you can't tell me
Speaker 1: that someone isn't, at least for a split second thinking
Speaker 1: I hope nothing that because they still just want to
Speaker 1: get high. I think they're just clouded and disillusioned by
Speaker 1: the actual drug. Of course, I get it. I get
Speaker 1: what you're saying, like they're in pursuit of the high.
Speaker 1: It's not that anyone that is addicted is intentionally trying
Speaker 1: to kill themselves. I'm with you, I'm tracking with you alone.
Speaker 1: The same topic is the other weight what moment, which
Speaker 1: is learning how fenton al actually works when you ingest
Speaker 1: any opioid and needs. Initially you get that sense of euphoria,
Speaker 1: but then your drive to breathe is gonna go down
Speaker 1: or stop breathing, and that's actually what kills you. Fentinel
Speaker 1: can do that within a matter of ten minutes or so.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys, Like I think, we
Speaker 1: hear all these stories fitting all in different drugs, and
Speaker 1: we just assume it goes from use to a passing.
Speaker 1: But I had no idea that it slows down your
Speaker 1: breathing until you completely stop. So knowing how it works
Speaker 1: is also just important. Before you were impacted in your
Speaker 1: families or personally by this drug or just use in general,
Speaker 1: did you know or have any awareness of what this
Speaker 1: would even look like. Y'all recall that Prince was having
Speaker 1: a medical condition. Prince suffered with hip pain. With all
Speaker 1: the years of performing in the heels, he suffered with
Speaker 1: pains in his stinkles and pains and his hips, and
Speaker 1: he really needed hip replacement surgery. His medical professionals had
Speaker 1: recommended it, and he did not have that surgery, and
Speaker 1: he needed it to order to be able to have
Speaker 1: a functional life. So he lived. It was prescribed sent
Speaker 1: on and that's how he died, was an overdose of it.
Speaker 1: I did not know that he was prescribed it, but
Speaker 1: wasn't what he had synthetic if I remember correctly. And
Speaker 1: that was the issue. And here's the thing. It only
Speaker 1: takes what a small amount. Look at a little fifteen
Speaker 1: year old Olivia great sand Words took one pell and
Speaker 1: it took her off the face of planet forever. She
Speaker 1: didn't overdose. There was grains of sand worth of fentanyl
Speaker 1: that killed. Oh, bless her heart, and she was already little.
Speaker 1: It's important to know as much as you can. Well,
Speaker 1: what do we know. It's tasteless, it's odorless, is powerful,
Speaker 1: it's replicated, it's generic. It's just scary. And I won't
Speaker 1: officially stay here. Tracy t Row is not telling you
Speaker 1: be careful with your drugs. Tracy t row is saying like,
Speaker 1: don't do it. I don't want to be generic and
Speaker 1: say just say no. But I am saying like, wow,
Speaker 1: take key to what's going on around us. And to
Speaker 1: your point, I think April, you said that Kate was
Speaker 1: maybe being cautionary and realistic at the same time. The
Speaker 1: thing that y'all said that I didn't factor in was
Speaker 1: that devil what you said about the nile and that
Speaker 1: she may not be able to see what other people
Speaker 1: see because from her perspective, it's different depending on what
Speaker 1: level of drug she has or not having. Different take
Speaker 1: a little bit different take on that. I am sickle
Speaker 1: cell disease. That's worst case scenario. So my experience with
Speaker 1: these payments, I know a lot about them. They started
Speaker 1: me off on demron at a very young age, got
Speaker 1: off of that. I've been through addiction, so I don't
Speaker 1: like taking narcotics and they're required when I'm having severe pain,
Speaker 1: so I know quite a bit about it. They went
Speaker 1: through a series of medicine, pay medicine narcotics to try
Speaker 1: to find a pay medicine that works for me. A
Speaker 1: lot of stuff I'm allergic to. One of the medicines
Speaker 1: they tried was morphine. Trying to get me off of
Speaker 1: Demerov found out I'm definitely allergic to morphine. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: went into full arrest. I was dead. Was dead. So
Speaker 1: when we know morphine codeneen fentcinel is actually one of
Speaker 1: the ones I'm allergic to, because once I became an adult,
Speaker 1: they tried that as well, but they tried that in
Speaker 1: a patch form where it's slow releases and through the skin,
Speaker 1: and I still had very bad effects from it. So
Speaker 1: it's a drug not to play with at all. So
Speaker 1: these grains are saying they're not joking about that. What
Speaker 1: did y'all think about the episode? Like, how did you
Speaker 1: connect with it? I connected with it again, like Olivia,
Speaker 1: I had a friend that had been through rehab. He
Speaker 1: was on the straight and narrow. He was doing this
Speaker 1: thing and just one night a party and with some friends.
Speaker 1: I thought he was doing just some coke and the
Speaker 1: coke was laced with fitting. Luckily no one died, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately he did have a relapse. So even if you think,
Speaker 1: like I said, get it from someone you trust. He
Speaker 1: trusted these people. These were his friends that he parted
Speaker 1: with on a normal time. Because that makes me think
Speaker 1: about Kate's experience. It was kind of their normal experience
Speaker 1: to do the comedic thing and after the set doing
Speaker 1: coke and she just when she said, she was a
Speaker 1: baby with it, so she that was probably why she
Speaker 1: a little, just a little something, one skittle isn't like
Speaker 1: the whole pack. It's basically what she's saying. That's her heart.
Speaker 1: But how about you, how did you relate to this
Speaker 1: full episode? I have a connections, I think with all
Speaker 1: the scenarios, but one recently one of my church members
Speaker 1: who is out in the streets but she's had been
Speaker 1: coming into the church was recently found dead with an
Speaker 1: appearent overdose of marijuana. And she came to the ministry
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. She worked in the music
Speaker 1: ministry and with the choir with me and I would
Speaker 1: pick her up and you can tell a drug user,
Speaker 1: which she always denied it. We'd always try to get
Speaker 1: help with some of us would even take her to
Speaker 1: her treatments. She was at the church volunteering with our
Speaker 1: feeding program two weeks ago and here Saturday night they
Speaker 1: found her in a car, her and another man both
Speaker 1: I'm responsive and a parent marijuana overdues Mariana. That's the
Speaker 1: first I've heard of that. No, you know what, everything everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry for your loss. That is just heartbreak.
Speaker 1: Game safe to say that she and the person that
Speaker 1: was with her were probably thinking they were just getting
Speaker 1: high from smoking marijuana. So that's the biggest thing. If
Speaker 1: you're thinking that you're just gonna get a regular type
Speaker 1: of high, you can't smell it, can't detect it, you
Speaker 1: do not see it until it's too late. Double. Let's
Speaker 1: transition into I guess from a personal perspective to this
Speaker 1: professional perspective. We know you've been an HR professional for
Speaker 1: a twenty five plus years, so you've seen it all.
Speaker 1: As far as workplace issues, How has fitting all impacted
Speaker 1: your job and your coworkers. I'm thinking like, as an
Speaker 1: HR professional, my main role is just to educate employees
Speaker 1: and educate the managers about drug abuse. But one at
Speaker 1: my facility that we're having problems with is heroin use.
Speaker 1: And we had a couple of cases where we've done
Speaker 1: some reasonable suspicion drug tests and they're sitting all in
Speaker 1: Heroin mixed has been a big negative impact on our
Speaker 1: work place. With any type of drug use heroine and
Speaker 1: in senting all use. There's mass of absentee ism. People
Speaker 1: are coming to work in paired running too walls, being
Speaker 1: a little confused. So my role in this is I'm
Speaker 1: getting managers trained and knowing now how to spot and
Speaker 1: identify and see what behaviors, what things that you can
Speaker 1: look at to to spot out that. My role is
Speaker 1: not to say you're a drug user. We look at
Speaker 1: a drug user as it's a medical condition. It's not
Speaker 1: just this person as if they need some assistance. About
Speaker 1: a month ago, had a guy was at the job
Speaker 1: and they had reported that he was one employee that
Speaker 1: he seemed a little bit agitated and he really was
Speaker 1: like out of his self, stand up on the chair,
Speaker 1: not knowing where he was. And then I end up
Speaker 1: him been having to call and actually do a live
Speaker 1: consultation with the center and actually give him to a
Speaker 1: treatment facility. We got e a p got a bed
Speaker 1: for him to go ahead and come there. Every boy,
Speaker 1: it's in take and be admitted. What you think happened?
Speaker 1: He checked himself out, He never showed, he didn't even
Speaker 1: he never he never got his help, and he never
Speaker 1: came back to work. I just hear the heartache for you.
Speaker 1: I hear how much you want to help, So I
Speaker 1: just want to applaud you and your efforts and having
Speaker 1: such a caring heart. I know a lot of HR
Speaker 1: professionals get a bad rep agree for not really caring
Speaker 1: about people. But I just want to say thank you
Speaker 1: because easily that's not my problem. Right, let's paperwork for
Speaker 1: me and moved on. Yeah, I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1: And we learned that Michael Kin Williams, Oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: y'all his nephew. This just this just tore me apart
Speaker 1: seeing his nephew, because you know how much you love
Speaker 1: your aunts and uncles, right, and Michael Kay Williams nephew
Speaker 1: was no different. But we know that he struggled with
Speaker 1: drug use from much of his life, and though he
Speaker 1: thankfully was able to enjoy some years of sobriety, we
Speaker 1: know that he did not have long term success. April,
Speaker 1: you come from the topic from a unique perspective because
Speaker 1: we talked about that with pain management, and so we
Speaker 1: know that you have to make sure that you don't
Speaker 1: fall prey to addiction. You mentioned the dem roll and
Speaker 1: trying to get yourself winged off the demarroll. How do
Speaker 1: you guard yourself against the misuse of the drug and
Speaker 1: the dangers of the drugs From a medical perspective, transitioning
Speaker 1: from childcare to a dull care. I was blessed to
Speaker 1: be in the hands of one of the greatest hematologists
Speaker 1: I'll ever have. She trained me about sickle cell. She
Speaker 1: trained me how to taper down off the pain me
Speaker 1: is after coming out of the hospital. Along with that,
Speaker 1: as I got older and mature, I started to become
Speaker 1: more natural and holistic. I wanted to come off a
Speaker 1: lot of the pain medicine, a lot of the chemicals
Speaker 1: that are made by big farmer. So I started doing
Speaker 1: my own research on natural things to help with my pain,
Speaker 1: my inflammation, my blood pressure, my blood sugar. So I
Speaker 1: drink tumeric tea, ginger tea. I do a lot of
Speaker 1: disciental ty, incorporate sentiment, a lot of sentiment into my
Speaker 1: thing that helps with blood pressure and blood sugar. I
Speaker 1: still take some of the medicines. Again, like I said,
Speaker 1: the doctor taught me how to tap her down. So
Speaker 1: there's a whole system. I'm glad you implemented those steps.
Speaker 1: You have to find what works for you. I think
Speaker 1: that's takeaway for anybody, even my son bless these young
Speaker 1: men's hard. I have to tell him often you have
Speaker 1: addiction in your family. Sometimes you have to be honest
Speaker 1: about what's on both sides exactly. You may see your
Speaker 1: friends with a certain tolerance here or there, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's always going to be the same for you,
Speaker 1: and we right have to find what works for us.
Speaker 1: That's smart for you, car to let your son know
Speaker 1: he's genetically predisposed, so he's gonna be careful. That's good.
Speaker 1: That's good. Therever you have gone through it, you have
Speaker 1: gone through it at work, with your family member, with
Speaker 1: your church member. It's been amazingly challenging for you. How
Speaker 1: are you coping with that? As someone who's having these
Speaker 1: vicarious experiences that are continuously an ound you. I just
Speaker 1: have my prayer to make it through then encouraging myself
Speaker 1: through it, because even though that person lost their lives,
Speaker 1: there's somebody else out there that's gonna need help. You've
Speaker 1: got to provide that same encouragement. You've gotta be able
Speaker 1: to not look down at them and not look funny
Speaker 1: at them, and have a heart that will let me
Speaker 1: ask you since you've had the personal and professional like perspective.
Speaker 1: If you were to tell our listeners, what is something
Speaker 1: that they should look for, and then what's an immediate
Speaker 1: stuff they should take if they suspect that someone may
Speaker 1: have a problem, what would you suggest? I think that
Speaker 1: you see as an individual that's a user, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot of that stun pin. I look the
Speaker 1: confused look and they're talking to themselves. Now this recent
Speaker 1: family member that's a user. They have this thing where
Speaker 1: they talk and they do that. Okay, that's not the
Speaker 1: first person that I saw. The young man at my
Speaker 1: job was having that same in its conversation. They do
Speaker 1: something with their talk. I don't know if it's with
Speaker 1: their teeth or their tongue. It's an involuntary action, absolutely
Speaker 1: side effect of the drugs. That's good to know. So
Speaker 1: under the National fin and All Awareness Foundation, they have
Speaker 1: a toll free number that you can call. If you
Speaker 1: see someone you have a family member that is exemplifying
Speaker 1: those symptoms, you can call and get help for them
Speaker 1: or give them the number to call if they'll take
Speaker 1: their number. That's good. Yeah, that's very helpful information. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for that. I know we talked about
Speaker 1: Kate's story and her takeaway from her experience implies that
Speaker 1: she plans to continue using, which seems mindboggling to us.
Speaker 1: But you know, you have a cousin who was an
Speaker 1: active user and has had similar experiences, right, could you
Speaker 1: tell us about that and how do you feel A
Speaker 1: reason experience is this person's parents found them not breathing.
Speaker 1: They called the ambulance, they were hospitalized. They actually died,
Speaker 1: but they got them back. Was in the hospital for
Speaker 1: two weeks until Miracus was this person wakes up. My
Speaker 1: aunt said that they said the person was going to
Speaker 1: have some brain damage because there was part to where
Speaker 1: they were responsible for so long. But nonetheless, out of
Speaker 1: the two weeks the person recovered, she called and said
Speaker 1: they're saying that they're gonna let her out of the hospital.
Speaker 1: She was trying to walk from the hospital and after
Speaker 1: everything that she had gone through, they's thinking she's trying
Speaker 1: to walk to go home. She's trying to walk to
Speaker 1: get outside to a person that's outside to take her
Speaker 1: back to the drug house. But the hospital was like, no,
Speaker 1: we can't release you. In order for you to be released,
Speaker 1: you have to go to your step program. She had
Speaker 1: been admitted to a rehab center and they think they
Speaker 1: were going to have rehab for sort of six weeks,
Speaker 1: but with those what fourteen days that she's there, she's
Speaker 1: having the withdrawals. But her next step was you are
Speaker 1: not going to live of if you don't go and
Speaker 1: get treatment. But her choice was to go get in
Speaker 1: the car with this person and go back to the
Speaker 1: red house, go to this drug dealer whomever it is
Speaker 1: that suppliner with that drugs. She'd say, I don't have
Speaker 1: a problem, I don't need rehab. I'm fine because she's
Speaker 1: living her best life. Let's be honest. In their mind,
Speaker 1: they are, They're receiving the high and that is the
Speaker 1: only goal. I'm literally feeling super emotional now thinking about
Speaker 1: my family members that I know that are on drugs
Speaker 1: and the struggle with addictions, And it is so hard
Speaker 1: just hearing your experience, knowing that how much you will
Speaker 1: for someone right when someone's in the hospital and you
Speaker 1: hear there in the hospital. You get on prayer calls,
Speaker 1: getting rare circles, try to get folks to healing, but
Speaker 1: you don't really factor in that person. Whatever got them
Speaker 1: to the addiction is what keeps them with the addiction,
Speaker 1: and it's easier for us when we're on the outside
Speaker 1: end out knowing the pain. Just I'm just looking for
Speaker 1: that same high they're looking for that they wanted, that
Speaker 1: same high that they'll never get, even though y'all know
Speaker 1: I wrote Kate Harror and her comment about be careful
Speaker 1: what your drugs. Yeah, I think it was very telling
Speaker 1: now that I've hear what we're saying here, if she's
Speaker 1: in the midst of whatever she's grappling with and her
Speaker 1: own use, and hearing Dever talk about the people who
Speaker 1: are saying that they don't have a problem even though
Speaker 1: they look like living dead, that there's some lack of
Speaker 1: self assessment that she hasn't done yet. And she talked
Speaker 1: about these letters to her soul, which I thought was
Speaker 1: a beautiful moment in the episode. My therapist is giving
Speaker 1: this tip, sit down and write a note to yourself
Speaker 1: from your soul, like your soul doesn't judge you, like
Speaker 1: your soul wants to be proud of you. And then
Speaker 1: right back and forth. And I never spent time alone
Speaker 1: with my thoughts like that and terrified me so like
Speaker 1: when I'm having trouble now or I beat myself up.
Speaker 1: I'll do thinking about some of the mistakes you beat
Speaker 1: yourself up about, because we all have those. What would
Speaker 1: your letters say? Mine would be short and sweet, yours
Speaker 1: would be April. What would you say? Love more and
Speaker 1: forgive often, and that not just go for people that
Speaker 1: have wronged you, but for yourself as well. Forgive yourself
Speaker 1: for whatever turmoil, whatever pain, whatever wrong was done to you.
Speaker 1: Forgive yourself. That's a big one. That's a big one. Forgive,
Speaker 1: So love more and forgive often. You're right, Wow, that
Speaker 1: was good. I love that. Thanks. If you wanted to
Speaker 1: say something, just say something prolific. I don't know everybody,
Speaker 1: just say did all right? You can't do anything until
Speaker 1: you forgive yourself. I can't even come behind that. April,
Speaker 1: thank you for your poetic words. That was beautiful. We
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Let's shift into Olivia's story, which was just
Speaker 1: as devastating because these other ones that we have shared,
Speaker 1: she was just so young, so she clearly could not
Speaker 1: have understood the risk that she was truly taking. Last April,
Speaker 1: the night before Easter, Olivia told her mom she was
Speaker 1: having a sleepover with a friend and ended up meeting
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old male she was chatting with online.
Speaker 1: He gave her a painkiller that was unknowingly laced with fentanyl.
Speaker 1: Soon after Olivia was dead. Olivia was I mean, she
Speaker 1: was young, so of course she was impressionable, and it
Speaker 1: is so unfortunate that that's what happened in her ending.
Speaker 1: And she's not the only one. Like this happens all
Speaker 1: the time, Like y'all know, I have that twenty year
Speaker 1: old so as a young male, I'm hoping that he's
Speaker 1: not trying to influence anyone, and then God forbid, if
Speaker 1: he was, it would be laced, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But it just in general, parents, grandparents even trying to
Speaker 1: decipher if I should let my child go and meet
Speaker 1: their friends or should I let them go out? Are
Speaker 1: they telling me the truth? Like all these anxieties we're
Speaker 1: already thinking about. It's a hard one. You have a granddaughter, Deborah,
Speaker 1: what kinds of conversations are you having with her about
Speaker 1: drugs and keeping herself safe? I constantly educate my granddaughter
Speaker 1: in reference to I said, you heard about this, You
Speaker 1: heard about finer? Oh? Yes, Mom knew about it. She's
Speaker 1: like I know about thing. Everybody know. You're supposed to
Speaker 1: stay away from it. I said, but what if somebody's
Speaker 1: open you a joint, you don't know what's what does
Speaker 1: it look like to stay away from? What does it
Speaker 1: look like if you open it up? You wouldn't you
Speaker 1: be able to tell that it's in it? Could you tell?
Speaker 1: Was there anything that you wish that they would have discussed?
Speaker 1: Any questions that you think that they could have asked
Speaker 1: the guests to share in the episode, anything else you
Speaker 1: wanted to hear more about. I think what should have
Speaker 1: been talked about is a lot of people are doing marijuana.
Speaker 1: It's legal medicinely in recreation some places. Keywords if people
Speaker 1: are gonna do this stuff, One, make fit neil harder
Speaker 1: to get First of all, why are you able to
Speaker 1: get it off the black market? House it getting on
Speaker 1: the black market? Number one? Number two, if people are
Speaker 1: gonna smoke marijuana, make it legal everywhere where you can
Speaker 1: continue to regulate and people know they're not getting anything
Speaker 1: lace there. No, they're getting us ativa or indica or
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. I also think they should
Speaker 1: have looked at more of the medical side of it.
Speaker 1: A lot of these people that are addicted on drugs
Speaker 1: started because of an injury and the doctor pros. That's
Speaker 1: interesting because they didn't talk about the prescription perspective and
Speaker 1: what your experience is. That was one of the drugs
Speaker 1: that they gave you to experiment with your pain management,
Speaker 1: and how your reaction to it was not positive and
Speaker 1: how you had to pursue something else. So you're right
Speaker 1: as you said. I think people forget you just hear
Speaker 1: fitting on like it's bad. Yeah, you think it's a
Speaker 1: true actual it's actually a druga exactly for the actual condition.
Speaker 1: I think it's super important too. Like I tell my son, No,
Speaker 1: you have addiction in your family. We have to pay
Speaker 1: attention to that and maybe talk to our family, use
Speaker 1: our village and does this impact us? I can tell
Speaker 1: you you all have hit me in every way. I
Speaker 1: have got you like whoa. This has been amazing, Carl.
Speaker 1: Have we like informed and educated and uplifted it and
Speaker 1: in spirit and faith and truth and life? Hello, come
Speaker 1: on here, listen. The rude word of inspired is in
Speaker 1: spirit and that's definitely where we were today. I learned
Speaker 1: some new things, different perspectives to just keep us talking
Speaker 1: and keeping the conversation going. Let's keeppreciate because you gave
Speaker 1: me some insight. Okay, I really appreciate that I came
Speaker 1: off my soapbox, so thank you. There's so many more
Speaker 1: moments we could discuss, but it's that time. Our beloved
Speaker 1: guests are fantastic. Let's Red Table that community members, we
Speaker 1: must bid you farewell. Thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: on Let's Red Table that You're very welcome. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. Thank you. I appreciated the opportunity. I
Speaker 1: learned so much from that conversation. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a short breakoutter this but when we return, we're gonna
Speaker 1: share our top five takeaways from this episode. Now it's
Speaker 1: time to share our thoughts, presenting Cora and Tracy's top
Speaker 1: five thoughts. This is the part of the show where
Speaker 1: we speed through five thoughts slash takeaways from this episode.
Speaker 1: Let's fire them off. Come on number five. If you're
Speaker 1: experiencing drug addiction, there is help. You do not have
Speaker 1: to go along facts. You can go back to the
Speaker 1: top of this episode and get a number. There are
Speaker 1: resources online. There is a place for you to go.
Speaker 1: Number four with fitting all on the streets. Taking drugs
Speaker 1: recreationally is like playing a game of Russian Roulette. We've
Speaker 1: said this several times. This episode is so accurate. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's scary to be cliche. As we've said
Speaker 1: all episodes, just don't just say no, right, that's just
Speaker 1: the best way to go. We're gonna take that to
Speaker 1: number three. If you make a mistake, no matter happy
Speaker 1: or small, you are allowed to forgive yourself. That is
Speaker 1: the beauty came Number two. Talk with your loved ones,
Speaker 1: especially the impressionable youth in your life, about the realities
Speaker 1: of fitting all and some healthy recreational outlets. And I
Speaker 1: think that's something we wished they had talked about a
Speaker 1: little bit more on the Red Table or something I
Speaker 1: definitely wish they would have talked about, just some other
Speaker 1: healthier outlets to help people move forward even in their sobriety.
Speaker 1: So maybe people who aren't watching are people who just
Speaker 1: haven't experienced it, but maybe people who are recovering and
Speaker 1: want those additional tips. And Number one, trying drugs for
Speaker 1: the first time could be your last time. Who that's
Speaker 1: so heavy, period. We want to know how you're feeling
Speaker 1: about this new season of Red Table Talk. We are
Speaker 1: open to talk about any and every thing with you.
Speaker 1: Also make sure you're sending your questions at less red
Speaker 1: Table that at red table talk dot com. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Make sure you get subscribed on
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, and please rate this podcast on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast number five. We'll be back next week for
Speaker 1: another episode of Let's Red Table Back. A big thank
Speaker 1: you to our executive producers Jada Pinkett Smith, Ellen Rakitin
Speaker 1: and Folon Jethro. And thank you to our producer Kyler
Speaker 1: Knau and our associate producers Mara Della Rosa and Yolanda Chow.
Speaker 1: And finally, thank you to our sound engineers Calvin Baylis
Speaker 1: and Devin Donnahey.