Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - The Role of Government in the Fentanyl Crisis

00:00:00.000 hello everybody welcome back to the games for girls podcast uh thank you for tuning in make

00:00:11.760 sure you check us out at outkick.com uh anywhere where you get your podcasts you can like and

00:00:17.240 subscribe share these episodes with your friends i'm super excited for today's conversation because

00:00:24.220 this is a woman who i think is um beyond inspiring uh she has taken a incredibly tragic scenario not

00:00:34.160 even tragic i mean this is unimaginable uh for for moms for parents for for for humanity uh what her

00:00:43.220 and her family has gone through is unimaginable uh but she has taken this this situation and she is

00:00:49.540 using it uh to benefit others uh so they don't have to experience what she and her family is still

00:00:57.640 currently experiencing uh today we were talking to ann funder she is the mom of four children um i knew

00:01:06.000 who she was i'd actually met her previously but i don't know if i really understood the gravity

00:01:12.180 of her situation which is entirely naive on on my part but i was at the rnc convention

00:01:18.920 i'm sure you've seen the clips and gave a speech a brief speech and she received a standing

00:01:25.800 ovation uh her speech was about her 15 year old son's death uh from a fentanyl overdose in southern

00:01:33.220 california back in 2022 uh which she described as the tragic reality of open borders uh she has gone on

00:01:42.280 like i said to to do incredible things she's even just recently testified before congress

00:01:47.300 uh going down to the border trying to get to the root of the problem why do we have

00:01:52.560 an entire political party in terms of elected representation who have embraced this who have

00:01:59.180 done none of the necessary actions in preventing this from happening to her son or to anyone else

00:02:05.420 again really heartbreaking stuff but uh a message that needs to be heard it needs to be heard by

00:02:11.220 everyone um and so uh excited for this conversation i hope you enjoy i hope you share it with others

00:02:18.200 uh so check out the interview here with ann funder and thank you so much for joining the gains for

00:02:24.080 girls podcast um i had the opportunity to meet you actually and your daughter a while back but

00:02:30.400 i don't think i really understood the full in-depth account of what you and your family and of course

00:02:37.800 your beautiful son who we can see in a photo behind you i don't think i understand understood at the

00:02:43.580 time really what your family had faced really the tragic reality of what your family faced

00:02:49.700 until i was at the rnc convention and i along with i mean everyone around me i would imagine

00:02:57.720 majority of people in that room we cried as you cried and so would you just you know briefly tell us a

00:03:04.540 little bit about yourself a little bit about your family well we were living in southern california

00:03:11.800 very um involved family we always did everything together private school kids church twice a week

00:03:21.600 it was really important to me to raise them you know with very um i guess conservative values and

00:03:29.060 and you know but you know well-rounded sports um you know lots of friends always you know doing

00:03:37.040 things on the weekends trying to you know stick together and find what you know is the best you

00:03:43.040 know hobbies for each of my kids and really trying to grow that you know you just think of things like

00:03:48.720 everything that you do right as a parent and then my my oldest son weston who you know is my

00:03:55.700 the love of my life you know my first love i call him obviously you know when you a mother to child

00:04:03.320 relationship is an unbreakable bond and he was the first i'd ever known of that bond so he had a

00:04:08.840 really special place in my heart but we lost him it was a huge loss to our whole family i can't even

00:04:13.880 imagine from a mother's perspective of course i don't have kids but but i do have a mom um i i similarly

00:04:21.040 have uh three siblings i have a brother uh i can only imagine the toll this would take on my parents

00:04:28.360 and as a sibling i i just i can't even fathom but it sounds like you know childhood was was normal it

00:04:35.860 was good it was great really and how you described it again very similar to to mine so i think again

00:04:42.220 this is why it really hits uh so close to home for me and and really so many um you mentioned weston

00:04:50.420 your oldest boy you mentioned uh losing him uh can you go into a little detail about of course the how

00:04:58.820 uh yeah so you know he was always you know center of attention he had um class you know he loved to make

00:05:10.320 people laugh he always lived to make people laugh he had a heart of pure gold i mean he just had

00:05:18.020 complete compassion for everybody he just wanted everyone to be happy and loved he was a very loving

00:05:23.480 child when he switched school to try the normal high school experience he called it he was thrown into

00:05:33.080 a huge population compared to a small private school thousands of kids at that dana hills high school

00:05:41.660 and you know there was just a different it's a totally different environment and there's an in

00:05:49.440 crowd and he was kind of being pulled into it and i think he just in a moment of peer pressure wanted to

00:05:54.540 impress the right people and didn't want to say no i thought i had prepared him for everything because i

00:05:59.180 had every conversation you could ever have about the dangers of trying things that people give you

00:06:03.780 never try anything but i don't i'll never know exactly what happened but i do know that he got

00:06:11.340 pulled in and he tried something that was illicit fentanyl it wasn't what they told him it was

00:06:16.000 because you know he had broken bones before and the doctors though i said no had offered him

00:06:22.480 percset so he was familiar with the sound of it he knew it wouldn't kill him because he's been

00:06:27.220 prescribed he was offered the prescription for it again as a mom i said no to that

00:06:31.560 but he knew that this is something that should be relatively safe and if it was an actual percset

00:06:38.620 my son would be here right now but he made the decision he made he shouldn't have there's no 0.99

00:06:42.720 doubt about it but kids do stupid things teenagers do stupid things and they're supposed to learn from 0.99

00:06:47.800 those mistakes and with fentanyl they don't get to learn that lesson so he you know tried what we 0.99

00:06:54.020 believe is a quarter of a pill and he died from it and fentanyl pills are not percifept they look

00:07:02.660 exactly like it they have the markings of it on both sides of the pill you couldn't tell the difference

00:07:08.480 if you held it held two of them up but there's absolutely no you know pain medicine in in the one that

00:07:14.740 he took and it's like a chocolate chip cookie you just don't know which side of the pill that the

00:07:20.540 fentanyl would be laying on i think all these kids were doing something of that sort and he

00:07:27.300 happened to be that unlucky one seven out of ten pills are deadly if you're not opioid dependent

00:07:32.500 and it took my son's life and i think he just wanted to fit in and thought you could just get

00:07:37.420 away with just doing something i i'll never know what he thought honestly i was very surprised because

00:07:42.920 i thought that he was set up to be strong enough to handle peer pressure but i think that's where i was

00:07:48.940 of course and i can attest coming from you know a recent college graduate myself uh i mean peer

00:07:56.960 pressure it's real it exists and and it's no joke um how did you first learn i guess that fentanyl

00:08:05.520 was involved in the overdose well i i guess we we learned about it they had suspected it because

00:08:17.300 there's a definite i think like category like categorically the way they find them it's typical

00:08:24.720 so they suspected fentanyl right off the bat the blood test showed it at that time so of course i i

00:08:33.920 mean i i think we see i mean we hear this and of course there are two main issues that that exist

00:08:40.320 one of course it is the importation of fentanyl into this country which leads to number two which is

00:08:45.120 wide open borders which have which have allowed this um and so i i listened to your congressional

00:08:51.300 testimony to the hearing uh and and again i just don't know if i was that well versed on on the stats

00:08:58.880 here and so according to the house oversight committee i mean there's eight million migrants

00:09:03.640 there's 6.7 million um through the southern border alone i mean basically the floodgates are are open

00:09:10.520 and so why i mean why do you think as a mom not as a politician as a parent as a common sense i mean

00:09:18.920 just just american who again has had to face the reality of this why is it that they choose to

00:09:24.520 to ignore the issues that are so blatantly present so so in their face well that is the question i'm not

00:09:34.840 really sure why they ignore it with 300 000 people dead on american soil this is war and they're doing

00:09:41.600 nothing about it when joe biden ran for office against president trump he said 200 000 people had

00:09:49.640 died according to his statistics from covid and that no president going with those numbers should

00:09:55.880 ever be able to be present again well here we are with him as president and kamala harris as vice

00:10:00.520 president who was in charge of the border because i have her tweet from march of 2021 stating that he

00:10:05.900 appointed her to the border and that she was in fact in charge of the border that was her one job 0.97

00:10:11.300 that she failed at 300 000 people are dead more than the 200 000 that he said wouldn't qualify someone to

00:10:17.520 be president and here she is running for president so this this is a war it's the cartels on american soil

00:10:24.680 i have my reasons for why i think that they're not doing anything because president trump always says

00:10:29.480 follow the money personally that's what i think this is about because otherwise there would be

00:10:33.380 zero reason that we wouldn't be doing a single thing about this but we are not doing a single

00:10:38.720 thing about that there are you know local governments and states that have implemented some good

00:10:45.480 punishments for people who deal fentanyl some good bills that have gone through but more than anything

00:10:52.580 you'll see it every time the democrats fight anybody who wants to do something about this and there

00:10:58.980 is a reason and that's what we need to get to the bottom of of course of course which is what

00:11:04.180 you've done such a great job of course in raising awareness but but asking the question why uh that

00:11:11.000 300 000 number is that is that strictly from fentanyl or i guess drugs that have come across the border

00:11:17.000 or does that include crime and the other things that have also and also a result of open borders

00:11:25.300 so my numbers might be off by a slight bit because i'm going to give you some general numbers but

00:11:31.040 the 2021 was 76 000 2022 was 107 000 2023 is 113 not 100 and not i forget 113 000 i think

00:11:41.340 and we haven't even put this year's number into it's close to 300 000 that's reported numbers i can tell

00:11:48.080 you it's very underreported i know people whose uh death certificates of their children that they know

00:11:53.300 because it was in their system according to the coroner's office have not ruled it a fentanyl death

00:11:58.100 but it is a fentanyl death these numbers are are over 300 000 and by 2024 with those numbers and it's

00:12:05.820 going to be well over it yeah and the point you bring up about covid is really interesting and unique

00:12:13.000 and probably something people don't really make the connection to but it is so true and you said this

00:12:18.660 in your testimony before congress you said where is the covid response and so i encourage everyone to

00:12:25.320 to really think about that think about how we handled covid whether you think it was right or wrong i mean

00:12:31.460 we shut down the nation uh the world was shut down because of covid um but you're right here we are

00:12:37.980 sitting with with this issue this ongoing debate which blows my mind it's even a debate and not only are

00:12:45.600 are they not taking i mean they're not taking any action any steps really they're saying we've seen

00:12:51.660 to your point again about kamala harris um who says you know she was never the borders are that she was

00:12:58.040 never appointed that role um i mean you basically said it but your response is yes you were everyone

00:13:04.820 knows you were so not only are are they not taking steps they're they're just ignoring it entirely telling

00:13:10.920 you gaslighting the american people into believing uh that they want safe strong secure borders as well

00:13:17.400 um which of course we talked about the border of fentanyl right more things i learned um over 50 000 i

00:13:25.400 think the number was over 50 000 pounds of fentanyl has just been seized at this other border which

00:13:30.980 that's not that's not accounting for the the thousands and thousands of pounds that haven't been seized

00:13:38.060 um i think i also learned that two milligrams can be fatal so that number that that just the number

00:13:44.840 that's been seized i mean that's equivalent to potentially i mean like over 11 million fatal doses

00:13:52.040 of fentanyl and so yeah what do you think should be done to try and reduce the amount of of fentanyl

00:14:00.220 coming into this country well we can start with china shut down the factories in china they arrest they 0.99

00:14:07.280 they were they felt very successful that they arrested eight people involved with the chinese 1.00

00:14:11.300 factories recently there's 150 000 people in china who produce these precursor chemicals that are shipped

00:14:17.320 over to mexico so we can deal with that president trump was dealing with that fighting came in and

00:14:22.000 completely ignored it and it went business as usual um the cartels in mexico we could deal with mexico

00:14:28.020 and say get your cartels in line and if you don't not a shred of lettuce i don't care is coming over

00:14:33.900 this border we will stop everything until you deal with this number three we can go after the cartels 0.98

00:14:39.180 we should go seal team six on them they're terrorist organizations they are killing our children they're 0.83

00:14:44.340 after our children and we should also go after the criminals in the united states sarah huckabee

00:14:50.160 sanders has the best legislation death penalty for any fentanyl dealer who gives a child a drug that

00:14:58.220 killed them death penalty she also has life imprisonment for any fentanyl death period um the legislation

00:15:05.440 that she has passed in arkansas is among the greatest i think that it's incredible i think more people

00:15:11.600 should follow her lead we can we can do a lot of things that we're not doing i mean there you want

00:15:17.160 to know what we can do from a federal standpoint that joe biden and kamala harris don't need a weak

00:15:20.940 border bill for they can start they can implement re-implement remain in mexico and stop catch and

00:15:26.820 release those two things right there would make a huge difference difference we can continue building

00:15:31.460 the wall we can stop acting like the ports of entry is where we need to focus our energy and start

00:15:37.120 focusing it along the border where it is dangerous you you drove your car up to some of the areas of

00:15:42.580 the border that are not patrolled you would be met with cartel people uh workers i don't even know

00:15:49.300 what you call them employees i'm not sure cartel members yeah gang members with machine guns

00:15:55.860 patrolling that border and if they saw them and there were no you know ice or border agents around

00:16:02.300 they would kill you without even thinking the border is a very very dangerous place there's so much that

00:16:08.800 can be done but it's not and recently um on a hot mic moment with carrie lake someone was offering her

00:16:15.040 to please stop talking about the cartels because they're running all 50 states elections so i think

00:16:20.680 that's where the big thing is kamala harris has future voters of america in her mind and she has 1.00

00:16:26.200 decided it's more important to get people to come over here illegally to vote for her than it is to keep 0.94

00:16:31.120 our children safe and we only we don't really see that with fentanyl we see it in the school system

00:16:35.340 why are they sexualizing our kids why are they allowing you know uh drag queen story hour for 1.00

00:16:42.080 kindergarten these things are unusual they're they're they're perverted and you know they're really going

00:16:47.800 after the youth of our country right now fentanyl is the number one killer of young americans

00:16:53.480 uh ages 18 to 45 and the fastest growing demographic is 14 and under and teenagers it's almost number one

00:17:02.380 with teenagers this is killing us and we're doing zero about it so what do i think we need to do

00:17:08.500 completely brand new administration let's put someone back in charge who's been there before

00:17:13.520 so it's proven that you know we can we we can do the right thing in this country and keep americans

00:17:21.020 safe not a weak border bill that does nothing for americans only immigration we need somebody back in

00:17:26.980 office who's proven that they're going to be strong that's president donald trump and while i say this and

00:17:32.000 i want to talk to the moms because there are a lot of evangelical christians a lot of gun owners a lot 1.00

00:17:37.180 hunters and a lot of moms who know somebody that they sometimes those pools of people don't vote 1.00

00:17:43.760 but you know someone if you are going to vote that might not vote bring them to the polls with you if

00:17:49.520 every single one of us brought someone to the polls or made sure that they were going to be voting and

00:17:55.040 talk to them about voting and if they need to register them they can go to what i have been just

00:17:59.920 recently registered at vote for the number for america.org it's a great organization where you can

00:18:06.060 register people to vote and get everybody you can to the polls to make this difference because america

00:18:11.720 is waning i mean we have almost left it and kamala harris is a card-carrying marxist and that's the

00:18:19.960 truth um and that's country if she gets in it's going to be a very scary place

00:18:25.080 go to vote for america.org super duper easy it takes 60 seconds if even that to register to vote

00:18:34.960 send this link to your friends send this to people who in your life you know maybe consider themselves

00:18:39.940 apolitical and they don't really like trump they don't really like kamala's policies they're just

00:18:44.400 not going to vote tell them that's not an option uh tell them how crucial it is to exercise our

00:18:50.020 constitutional right in voting letting their voice be heard so what happened to weston what happened to

00:18:56.480 the funder family uh does not have to happen to any other family yeah you mentioned sarah hugabee sanders

00:19:04.420 she's incredible she's she's such a force i just really uh i mean female leadership in in the 0.82

00:19:10.880 political sphere is is limited as it as it stands uh but she is someone who i just admire a whole lot

00:19:18.300 we've seen president trump actually make similar statements i believe saying drug dealers deserve

00:19:24.080 the death penalty um and so hopefully this is something that he will implement uh when he gets

00:19:31.300 into the white house in november uh well in january he's elected in november um i could not agree with

00:19:37.760 you more there what was to to i guess kind of to really make it hit home again for for people who

00:19:47.240 think i'm sure how you thought this could never happen to my family can you just explain what coping

00:19:53.860 was like for you again as parents as siblings i mean this was i mean this is still fresh i mean this

00:20:01.000 happened in 2022 so i i mean this is still something that you know you're actively you're actively dealing

00:20:08.300 with can you explain what this looks like for your family it's just been changed everything for us

00:20:15.660 it's unimaginable we you know we we've gone through a loss like no one could ever i don't want anyone to

00:20:26.980 ever have to feel which is why i do what i do um my kids have lost their leader you know he was

00:20:35.100 their mentor and they loved him so much we had lost you know the kid we you know first poured everything

00:20:44.020 into and it slowed us down for sure left where we lived because everywhere we looked we saw him it's

00:20:52.820 hard to see as much as we left his friends it's so hard to see them enjoying life so we traveled for

00:21:02.960 about a year we grouped as a family i homeschooled my kids and we ended up you know near where i grew up

00:21:09.440 originally we buried my son on the east coast so i'm back on the east coast now nice but we go back

00:21:17.420 and forth california and back we still have our uh we still we have i guess we're dual dual state at this

00:21:24.020 point um but you know my kids have just it's been it's just it's changed everything it's it's been hard

00:21:32.340 on our work this economy's already been hard on our work our whole lives have changed we had a

00:21:36.920 perfect life before and this was never gonna happen to us and it has and it's really just it's displaced

00:21:44.760 us and it's just been really hard i don't know how else to say it other than it's just been

00:21:49.840 really hard been really difficult we deal with it every day are you in touch with other parents who

00:21:57.820 have i mean experienced a a similar fate as as you and your family yep absolutely with 300 000

00:22:07.400 americans you know being done especially because most of them are young americans majority of them

00:22:13.000 are in their 20s or late 20s to mid 20s um there's going to be 300 000 sets of parents who went through

00:22:20.500 this last two and yes i i work i work with a group last voices of fentanyl and moderate that

00:22:27.280 people go there for support we're activists we do a march on dc once a year we go to schools and

00:22:36.660 educate we try to get the word out in communities we attend community events we do a lot to try to

00:22:44.680 get the world word out and i also work with so many other organizations as well very active in them

00:22:50.360 and i'm also active um and my three living kids so i when i moved here my friend told me about moms

00:22:57.380 for liberty and i said what's that and i like the way it sounded so i'm fighting for my kids who are

00:23:02.600 still here so yeah i'm very very involved involved i've made it my mission because my son did not die

00:23:12.340 in vain and he's gonna save lives and that's what i'm doing saving life for him well that's the legacy

00:23:18.640 that's really you're honoring in in his name moms for liberty is incredible they do incredible work

00:23:26.220 again whether it's it's the sexualization of of kids in schools school choice parental rights they

00:23:32.620 really do a fantastic job uh so really a phenomenal group to be involved with uh what's next for you do

00:23:40.660 you have any you mentioned some of the groups you're working with uh working alongside do you

00:23:45.220 have any big plans um leading up to the election uh but of course even beyond that um to continue

00:23:53.500 raising awareness so wherever i'm called i think that the biggest thing right now is i want to i want

00:24:00.100 to educate i think one of the things that the rnc did was put this on the map the the the issue of

00:24:08.160 fentanyl but a lot of people heard of it but they hadn't really seen how it's affected people

00:24:12.740 i really want to keep educating people because fentanyl is so evil it's an evil poison being pushed

00:24:21.400 by evil people being supported by evil politicians and i want to keep educating people because once a

00:24:31.100 kid tries fentanyl it's not a matter of if they are going to die and i want to make this very clear

00:24:35.820 with it being 50 times more addictive than crack within two to three hours they're going to get

00:24:41.180 withdrawal symptoms that they can't handle and there's going to be a groomer just like a sexual

00:24:45.760 predator but a drug dealer who's going to come by and say you can't tell your parents everyone i'm

00:24:50.920 going to get in trouble you're going to get me in trouble you're going to get your friends in trouble

00:24:53.560 and you're going to get in trouble and they really put this mentally on them but if they survive that

00:24:58.540 birth pill they're going to be susceptible to withdraw symptoms that they could not ever handle alone so the

00:25:04.520 drug dealer is going to ease their symptoms by giving them more they're going to turn them into

00:25:08.400 opioid dependent without the parents even knowing and then a week two weeks three weeks your child

00:25:15.040 can be dead they're going to be found in bed dead one morning by a parent and this is the evil of that

00:25:20.420 drug and it's going to be silent because they're going to feel like they can't tell and they're trying

00:25:25.800 to ease symptoms of an addiction that they never wanted but they got within two to three hours

00:25:30.240 and these are muscle aches bone aches bowel issues intestinal issues um you know cold sweats shakes i

00:25:38.040 think i said shakes like headaches like an anvil two to three hours after the one time of trying and

00:25:44.160 rewire their brain so this is an evil thing i'm going to keep educating parents i want to educate parents

00:25:50.820 on peer pressure run scenarios with your kids say what are you going to do if someone says this

00:25:55.460 role play do whatever it takes to give your kids the current and the strength to be able to say

00:26:01.440 no in a situation because if they do get to try it even when they are gone it is very rare that a kid

00:26:09.080 survives fentanyl after trying it one time and so that's what my message is gonna just i'm gonna keep

00:26:15.940 getting out there i'm gonna keep teaching parents and i'm gonna keep trying to legislate for change

00:26:20.380 incredible incredible last question for you which i feel as if i know your answer but was weston's

00:26:29.300 death preventable you know if i if if i had known of course it was preventable 100 there's no other

00:26:37.340 answer than yes of course it was preventable if i had known you know that he was going to be

00:26:42.080 susceptible to peer pressure i would have done exactly what i told you uh they could have shut the borders 1.00

00:26:46.680 they could have stopped fentanyl from coming over and kids are always going to make stupid mistakes 1.00

00:26:51.420 and bad decisions are coming into their own they're invincible they're always going to you know they're 1.00

00:26:56.080 also very influenced by friends and any single one of us listening has probably done stupid things that

00:27:02.740 we should never have done but some you know some kids are more prone to try you know to push the

00:27:09.380 limits it could have been preventable because fentanyl should not be over here it should have been

00:27:13.420 dealt with the number one killer of of young americans and they're doing zero about it so yes

00:27:18.760 absolutely 100 this government should have done the necessary steps to keep it out of kids hands

00:27:26.240 it is like putting cyanide which by the way it is more potent and poisonous than cyanide more deadly

00:27:32.180 than cyanide which you can't get and i can't get thank god without special license for some special

00:27:38.860 reason that they're studying something special in science and they're putting it in the hands of

00:27:43.400 children they're putting it in the hands of children so yes this could have been fully preventable

00:27:49.100 but we need education so it's preventable from the family all the way to the country like to to the

00:27:55.000 government so absolutely well with people like you uh who continues to raise your voice uh to share

00:28:02.940 i mean your emotional testimony um and absolutely i believe i believe that we will reach a point where

00:28:12.260 uh this is not something that parents will have to worry about in the same way

00:28:17.300 that you now understand is is very real exists and so uh and thank you thank you thank you

00:28:26.000 um sharing i mean weston with the world uh leaving the legacy behind the that you are that he has and

00:28:35.400 so we appreciate you we will pray for you um i know it never it never gets easier uh to share these

00:28:42.320 stories but as you said they really are they're needed and so thank you for everything that you do

00:28:48.420 thank you for everything that you do because i know you're out there fighting for our kids every day

00:28:53.120 and you're amazing so thank you thank you guys for uh listening to the ains for girls podcast

00:28:59.540 uh really heartbreaking stuff if you feel how i feel it's kind of just overwhelmed with

00:29:05.480 uh emotion uh of course it's feelings of heartbreak it's feelings of a frustration that's how i feel

00:29:12.200 it's just it's it's frustrating and it's it really feels like betrayal uh we have people whose job it is

00:29:17.480 to protect us uh to ensure our well-being uh to provide us with security and they're failing

00:29:24.620 on every account as anne can attest to um as she said incredibly important that you are registered to

00:29:33.140 vote and you are voting uh so you can register to vote at vote for america.org uh that is vote for

00:29:40.320 the number for america.org uh really easy takes 60 seconds but important in taking back our culture

00:29:47.920 uh and restoring our great nation um make sure you follow along and funder uh what she's doing

00:29:56.180 supporting her in any way that we can uh and we will see you guys again next week on the gains for

00:30:00.840 girls podcast

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - October 30, 2024

The Role of Government in the Fentanyl Crisis

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