FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) — More than 100 people showed up to learn about the dangers of Fentanyl at Fairhope High School Tuesday night. Family members also shared stories after losing loves to Fentanyl overdoses.

Mike Reese is a former law enforcement lieutenant, but also a father who lost his son to this highly addictive and lethal drug.

“We lost my son two years ago to a fentanyl overdose,” said Reese. “He died from heroin that was laced with fentanyl. My son was 34 and he was just a brilliant guy.”

Now, Reese has been going around to schools and communities to share his story with parents and kids to remind them it’s just not worth it and that fentanyl is everywhere.

“They’re putting it in pills, they’re putting it in weed, they are putting it in the vape pods, and our message to the kids and students is, one pill can kill,” Reese said.

According to the CDC, one person dies from a fentanyl overdose every four and a half minutes.  

19-year-old Baldwin County native, Jacy Werner, lost her brother to fentanyl just six months ago.

“On September 11, I was standing in my kitchen and I looked out my window and I saw a police car coming down the drive way and I remember plain as day my mom looked at my dad and said ‘well Ben just got arrested’ and I knew in that moment Ben wasn’t, I ran outside and my boyfriend was out there and I remember I said ‘Ben’s dead,’ Werner said.

Since then, Werner started the Benjamin Werner Foundation in her brother’s honor. She goes into the schools and shares his story and offers different ways to help kids struggling with drugs.

“I am also there just to say that they can talk to me because sometimes they feel more comfortable talking to me since I am close to their age,” said Werner. “I also fund their rehab if they want it or need it.”