(NewsNation) — Three years after her son Weston died from fentanyl poisoning, Anne Fundner is not just spreading the word about the dangers of the drug, she’s helping change laws.
Fundner’s 15-year-old son died of an overdose after he unknowingly ingested a fentanyl-laced pill on Feb. 27, 2022.
“He walked into a room, and he just wanted to light it up with laughter. He would give anybody the shirt off of his back. He just always had feelings for anybody who was suffering or hurting, and he wanted to be there to help. His heart was pure gold, and he was just the most amazing kid. He was my firstborn. He taught me what love meant,” she told NewsNation.
Since his death, Fundner has made it her mission to educate others about the dangers of fentanyl, speaking to lawmakers at the Republican National Convention last summer and advocating for the passage of the HALT (Halt All Lethal Trafficking of) Fentanyl Act.
She stood by President Donald Trump’s side as he signed the HALT Act into law last month, and now she’s bringing that same mission to her home state of New Jersey.
After meeting with New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, the state lawmaker presented Weston’s Law, a bill that “extends the crime of human trafficking to include recruiting or coercing a juvenile to join a gang or drug trafficking scheme.”
She says it takes the laws used to fight sexual predators and applies them to drug use. She says it focuses on predators grooming children to try illegal drugs.
“If you know anything about grooming, they get children or people to try something illegal before they start the abuse, and they do that because then that kid or that person cannot tell on them, and so that’s what, being stalked, being pressured to do something, and then eventually getting in a situation where they just want to feel cool, and they try something,” she said.
Fentanyl’s grip on young people in the US
In the United States, fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is the leading cause of death for Americans between 15-48 years-old.
In 2024, the DEA reported that “more than 107,000 people lost their lives to a drug overdose in 2023, with nearly 70 percent of those deaths attributed to opioids such as fentanyl.”
Fundner called fentanyl an “evil drug” that is “the equivalent of you walking into a bar and ordering a glass of wine and getting grape juice and cyanide.”
Her son Weston was in the second half of his freshman year of high school and recently began attending a new school. He was offered a pill from a peer, not knowing it contained fentanyl.
“He made a mistake that we had talked about time and time again, to never do anything. But I always tell people, you know, what killed him was fentanyl, but what got him was peer pressure,” Fundner said.
How the HALT Act works
The HALT Act makes illegal fentanyl a Schedule 1 drug, which according to The National Institute of Health has the highest risk of abuse.
Fundner spoke at the HALT Act bill signing at the White House last month, praising the law, which gives law enforcement more leeway to crackdown on drug trafficking.
“This gives it a federal level prosecution, which is incredible, because now they can be prosecuted federally with a 10-year minimum jail sentence, and there are no ifs ands or buts,” she said.
Honoring her son through advocacy
Since Weston’s death, Fundner has found strength in her advocacy work; however, she is hesitant to offer guidance to others who are navigating through the grief of losing a child to fentanyl.
“I just can say that if you’re putting your feet on the ground and you can take a sip of water that morning, then you’re doing good over time. It doesn’t get any easier, but you just start learning how to take a step forward. And every day, some days you take a step back, but most days you try to take a step forward. Everyone’s fight will be different,” Fundner told NewsNation. “Some people choose to be silent and grieve and internalize it. I have always been an advocate, outspoken. I like being out there fighting, so that’s where I decided to take this, and it’s been extremely therapeutic.”