Help create #JakobsLaw. PLEASE. I lost my 18 year old son on 4/22/24 to this poison.  
4/26/24 To my dear sweet boy,   
My heart aches and my soul empty.   It has only been a few short days without you but already it feels like a lifetime.  This hurts.   
I hoped and prayed every day that you would find the strength and peace inside of you to keep going.  But, you couldn’t.  I understand.    
I need you to know that I understand deeply what you were going through.  I understood from the depths of my soul that this world was cruel to you.  From the time you were so small,  I knew this life was not meant for you.  I knew, this life was not yours.    
I truly put my entire heart and soul into loving you, which was not a hard task.  You were the most lovable.  You were kind, sweet, loving, smart, one of the funniest and wittiest humans I ever knew. You made me laugh out loud often.  Your heart was bigger than anyone I have ever known and probably will ever know.  I tried to wrap all of my love around you always so that you knew you were loved, you were cherished, you were important and you were more than enough.   
I know that your death was not planned   I know that poor choices took you from me, from this world.  But, I need you to know that I am not angry with you.  Not even a little.  I know that if you had it the way you had hoped, you would be happy, healthy, and safe.  You would be laying your head on my lap while I brushed through your hair with my fingers and told you how special you were to me and how deeply I loved you.  I know that you would have worked and saved that bread to get your condo and find love and have a beautiful life.  I am so deeply sorry that I could not give you the beautiful life you deserved.    
I need you to know that Daddy is not mad.  Bradley is not mad.  Anna is not mad.  We all knew that this life was brutal to you and that you deserved better.    
I need you to know that I know your goal was never to hurt me or cause me fear or worry.  I know this.  But, like I have told you over the years, you are my baby and I will always worry about you until the day we die.  I just never imagined that this day would come so soon.   Too soon.  I just wish I could have held you one last time, looked into your gorgeous eyes and tell you how proud I was of the human you had become, the strength you had these last couple of years, the willingness you had to make whatever changes you possibly could to be a part of our family and our hearts.  We opened that up to you and we all embraced you 1000%.  Sometimes love isn’t enough.  Your pain was greater.    
My beautiful, sweet, loving boy.  I miss you desperately and love you just a as deeply today and I did the first day I saw your beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair on July 17, 2005.  And I will love you even deeper until the day I rest my eyes and join you in your beautiful place.  Say hello to Poppy, Grandma Dot, Granny and definitely give Bekah a HUGE hug for me and tell her I get it too.    
I love you, I love you, I love you so deeply my sweet boy.  While I am never going to be able to know that everything will be ok for you here on earth, I do know that with where you are now, “It’ll all be alright” my love.  Who you were is not what you did. Now is your time to be brand new.  Be free my sweet boy. Flip and flop with God and just be the you that everyone who knew you loved and adored.  I will always be your biggest cheerleader.  Always my love. Until we meet again. Save a seat for me.   

On the tragic day of April 22, 2024, the life of a vibrant young man, 18-year-old Jakob, was abruptly ended. Engulfed in a sorrow beyond measure, I am Jakob's heartbroken mother, reaching out with a plea for https://www.change.org/JRTR4222024 Jakob fell victim to a lethal pill that contained fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times more potent than morphine. This incident was not an isolated one; the wave of fentanyl-related deaths is devastating families and communities across the nation.                       

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, synthetic opioids, primarily illegally-made fentanyl, have been the main cause of drug overdose deaths since 2013. Alarmingly, the death toll increased nearly six times from approximately 3,000 in that year to over 18,000 by 2016. That number continues to rise drastically. This is not just a  simple crying out for justice just for my child. This is justice for your child, your friend's child, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, your partner, your best friend, yourself, your uncle, it’s for all of us. The devastation that comes to families following something like this is astronomical. The pain that continues every single day is excruciating. While I understand a lot of people feel that Jakob🩶🪽 placed himself in that risk category by choosing to purchase the fentanyl laced pill that night, he didn’t ask to lose his life that night. 7 out of 10 pills purchased will have fentanyl laced in it. Deadly. Hear that. 7 out of 10 pills, the chances of a fatal dose are so high because people carelessly sell these things to vulnerable and sick people. Sometimes not even sick people. Unfortunately, greed is bigger than compassion. My son was mentally ill. He had bipolar one disorder and suffered from manic episodes when his medications weren’t at the right levels. He struggled his whole life to find his place in this world just to lose it with ONE PILL. From what I have seen from other parents who have lost children or family members to fentanyl poisoning Jakob🩶🪽‘s level was considerably lower. That reiterates to me how easily the lacing of fentanyl in street pills can kill you. When there are mass shootings, school shootings, injustices all over the world we come together to find an answer and save the next set of people. Why do we not do that more readily when it comes to drug abuse and fentanyl poisoning? It’s because those who suffer from drug addiction have a huge label of stigma smacked on their forehead and they are written off as bad seeds. My son was not a bad seed his heart was bigger than the world. He would’ve taken the shirt off of his back for you. He was harm to no one but himself and he needed help.  

Therefore, through this platform, I call for the immediate enactment of laws that make it illegal and punishable to sell pills containing lethal dosages of fentanyl. These laws must be stern, showing no leniency towards perpetrators who knowingly or unknowingly manufacture and distribute these fatal drugs, further worsening the opioid epidemic in our society.

The untimely death of our sweet Jakob, and countless others like him, should function as a catalyst to ignite a systemic change policy-wise. This proposed law is not only a beacon of justice for Jakob and victims alike but is a cry for endurance to all families estranged and suffering in similar manners.

Please, sign this petition and pressure our lawmakers into setting coercion laws that punish the sale of deadly fentanyl concealed pills, so that no other family has to lose a precious life in such a horrendous way.