‘It hurts every single day’: Mother reacts to DeSantis signing Fentanyl bills into law after losing daughter to drug exposure

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed two bills into law on Monday to help fight the opioid epidemic.

Debra Flanigan lost her daughter, Casey, a year ago to Fentanyl. Casey is just one of many who has lost their life to the drug.

Debra said her daughter will forever be 31.

“Being a whole year still didn’t seem real, but I guess when it kind of hit that one year, reality kind of set in,” she said.

DeSantis signs bill making it a felony to expose first responders to fentanyl

Debra is battling stage four cancer and said Casey was her main caretaker.

“She took me to all of my scans; she was just there no matter what,” Flanigan said.

She said after losing her first child, she did not want to continue to fight.

“I gave up, you know, my firstborn was gone. I needed to be with her. I thought, but then one day something just hit me, and I realized I need to fight for her,” she said.

Flanigan said losing your child to fentanyl exposure is a type of pain she would never wish on anyone.

“It hurts every single day. There’s not a day that I don’t cry,” she said.

Gov. DeSantis signed a bill that now makes it a second-degree felony to “recklessly” expose first responders to fentanyl. For example, if you lie to an officer about having drugs, they end up getting exposed and harmed, you could be charged.

“This is nasty stuff, and you have situations where law enforcement personnel are responding to these situations where fentanyl may be involved in, they really are putting themselves at risk,” DeSantis said.

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“I’m so glad he did that. The first responders don’t know what they’re walking into when they walk into a situation where fentanyl is involved, they need to be protected,” Flanigan said after hearing about the bill.

He also signed a bill naming June 6 Revive Awareness Day.

“It is called Victoria’s law and it encourages the Florida Department of Health to hold events to raise awareness of the dangers of opioid overdose and the safe use of opioid counteractive,” he said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the total drug-related deaths decreased by 3% from 2021 to 2022.

According to the report, fentanyl was responsible for the most drug-related deaths.

The 2023 numbers have not come out yet.

Flanigan said nobody deserves to die the way her daughter did, and she will never stop fighting to end the epidemic.

“Some days it’s hard to get up, but I do, I get up and keep moving, because I have to help with awareness for others,” Flanigan said.

For Mother’s Day, Flanigan said she is traveling to her daughter’s gravesite in Alabama to spend the weekend with her.

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