James “Sandy” Winnefeld, a retired Navy admiral, lost his son, a University of Denver student, to an overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin last September. His story gained widespread attention through a piece published in The Atlantic, in which he said despite helping to lead America's military, he couldn't save his son from addiction.
Winnefeld, who lives in California, now co-chairs a nonprofit group called S.A.F.E. Project US in an effort to battle opioid addiction and stop fatal overdoses. S.A.F.E. Project US aims to raise public awareness and supports research of substance abuse prevention programs.
On April 17 at the Unites States Attorney's Office in Denver, Winnefeld came forward, along with several Colorado officials, to announce the launch of the new Heroin Impact Project.
The project is an initiative of the Heroin Response Work Group, a partnership of federal, state and local agencies coordinating efforts to combat heroin use within Colorado. Heroin overdose deaths increased 42 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to a Heroin in Colorado study from the Heroin Response Work Group.
The Heroin Impact Project will take two approaches. First, it aims to target dealers through law enforcement and strong prosecution under Operation Poison Pusher. Second, hopes are to connect officers with resources for drug addicts, so they can encourage them into treatment through what's being called Operation Helping Hand.
Officials used the terms “poison” and “blood money” with frequency during the announcement to describe heroin and fentanyl and the money generated from their sale.
“I think you can detect the anger, the frustration, the drive to do something about this problem,” said U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. “That anger and that outrage doesn't come from a place of dinosaurs from the old days of the war on drugs — angry, old reefer madness people. It comes from seeing first-hand the death, the torment, the suffering, the terror that an addict feels, that the family members of that addict feel.”
Troyer said while law enforcement targets drug dealers, prosecutors across the state are prepared to seek the strongest sentences and long prison times for those convicted.
“Those are the people that we need to focus on and essentially put them out of business,” said Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock. “They are destroying families and lives every day by being out there.”
Robert Werthwein, director of the Office of Behavioral Health for the Colorado Department of Human Services, and Gina Olberding, operations manager for the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, also attended the announcement.
The Heroin Impact Project will draw on existing funding through the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which serves counties in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to director Tom Gorman.
Winnefeld rattled off a number of statistics related to the opioid epidemic during the announcement — 64,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. in 2016 and drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death in Americans under 50.
All were reasons the Heroin Impact Project has his support, he said.
“That's what we call a national emergency,” Winnefeld said, “not just a public health crisis.”
