Ashley Dunn loved fishing.

When she was 16, her father Mitch Dunn, she and her family snuck into the 5th hole of the south course of Antelope Hills Golf Course to see if they could catch a carp swimming in the lake. She swam in reclaimed water and came home with a 3-pound goldfish, but looking at her photo, you’d think she caught an award-winning marlin.

When Dan was 26, she drove from Prescott to Black Canyon City and bought what she thought was oxycodone, but was actually a fentanyl tablet.

On May 24, 2021 at 1:00 am, Mitch Dunn received a call from Yavapai Regional Medical Center. It was the call he feared coming. He knew that Ashley had been using drugs and that her future would be a call from the hospital or prison.

When Mitch and his wife Josephine Dunn arrived at the hospital, their worst fears were over.

Ashley was on a respirator. She had no brain activity. Her life was supported by countless wires. It was clear that this was not a question of whether Ashley would succeed, but of how long it would take before she made her decision to take her off life support.

The decision was made two days later, one day after Ashley’s son Carter’s fifth birthday.

Ashley Dunne died on May 26, 2021 at 3:22pm, becoming another victim of the fentanyl epidemic that has swept the country.

Fentanyl is part of the third wave of the opioid epidemic that has hit the country since the 1990s. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a wave of synthetic opioid epidemics began he in 2013 as overdoses of synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, began to rise. Drug overdoses surpassed prescription opioid and heroin overdoses in 2016 and have been on the rise since.

In 2021, the last year with complete data, 70,601 deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids other than methadone were recorded by the CDC. That’s more than seven times his number of heroin overdoses in the country in the same year.

Preliminary CDC data from September 2021 to September 2022 show 106,840 predicted overdose deaths, of which 72,708 were attributed to synthetic opioids.

Arizona Fentanyl

The Arizona border has become a hub for the domestic trafficking of fentanyl.

About 22 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription drugs were seized in Arizona in 2022, according to Drug Enforcement Administration Phoenix Field Division spokesperson Jodie Underwood. accounted for more than 43% of the 50.6 million tablets sold.

Nothing is sacred when it comes to bringing fentanyl into the country. I found it packed in.

Nogales CBP Area Ports Director Michael Humphries said agents in the border town seized more fentanyl in the first three months of fiscal 2022 than they did throughout fiscal 2021.

“Nogales is a pretty small town, which means 10 or 15 million fentanyl pills won’t[just]reach Nogales, Tucson or Phoenix in a few months. They’ll spread across the country,” Humphries said. Told.

Josephine and Mitch Dunn recounted Ashley’s story in late January at Starting Point Church, a worship space that was once Pier 1 Imports of Prescott Gateway Mall. Speaking before legislative committees and at community events.The pair have cried less, but it’s never been easier. doing. It’s not a thousand yard stare, it’s an eternity stare.

On May 25, 2021, Arizona State Representative Quan H. Nguyen (R-Prescott Valley) was in the parking lot on the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol when he received a call from Josephine Dunn. Dan’s tears prevented her from understanding all of her words, but he knew there would be nothing more important on his desk that day.

“A friend called me from Prescott and to my surprise she said her daughter died of fentanyl poisoning,” Nguyen said. “So I immediately canceled all her morning meetings and spent a few hours talking to her in her car.”

HB 2167’s short title, “Ashley Dunn Act,” is the second bill introduced by Nguyen in the name of Ashley. The bill seeks to make the transfer or sale of drugs that lead to the death of another a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

Nguyen introduced a similar bill with the same title in 2022, amended to be the one introduced this year. Held in the whole committee. Nguyen sees the fentanyl issue as a place of common ground.

“For me this issue should be a unity issue where we can all agree that this is a bad thing. We have to come up with a solution,” Nguyen said.

However, at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on February 1, Rep. Alexander Collodin (R-Scottsdale) asked whether the bill would overlap with current law on manslaughter and drug trafficking. rice field.

At the same hearing, Pima County attorney Laura Conover testified that Pima County prosecutors had successfully prosecuted the case using existing law.

“If you’re in Pima County and you’re selling a product that’s known to be lethal and you’re endangering the death of a customer, you’ll be charged with manslaughter,” Conover said. “I believe it has a deterrent effect.”

The Judiciary Committee overthrew the bill by a vote of 2 to 5 on February 1, but it was reinstated eight days later by the Health and Human Services Committee, issuing HB 2469 (The Simple Declaration of Fentanyl as a Public Health Danger). ) and replaced it. With text from the Ashley Dunn Act. The bill passed Health and Social Services on February 13 in a committee vote of 6 to 3, with Rep. Patricia Contreras, D-Phoenix joining the Republican committee to approve the bill. It passed the 5-to-3 Rules Committee on Tuesday and is now heading to the House floor.

Across the mall, the Senate Judiciary Committee has granted SB 1029 preliminary approval. This would amend the definition of first-degree murder to specifically include drug offenses involving fentanyl.

For Dunns, setbacks in the House haven’t stopped their efforts to spread awareness about the fentanyl epidemic.

“I will never stop. Until my last breath. I will never stop trying to put fentanyl dealers in jail,” said Josephine Dunn.

“We don’t want other families to go through what the last 20 months have gone through. My family is broken,” she said. “Thanksgiving the table is empty, Christmas is empty…I have her four other children, but we are not the same.”