A Virginia family says President Trump's declaration that the opioid crisis is a public health emergency is a step in the right direction, but there's much more to be done to help treat people affected by addiction.
"Addiction is not a choice. It's a brain disorder. It's a disease and...people need treatment," said Kathy Briggs.
Briggs' son, Kevin Briggs, struggled with addiction to pain killers for six years.
"We thought he was getting better, but when my husband and I found him dead in his apartment it was discovered he was using heroin," Kathy Briggs said.
She and her husband Jack are happy President Trump is focusing on the opioid epidemic, but want him to go further and declare it a national emergency so that funds can be made available more quickly.
"He's going piece-meal at it if he's not going to commit to it, call it an epidemic, put it out there for what it is, then it's doomed for failure. It's not going to work," Jack Briggs said.
"We need more funding and not enough is being done so in the meantime people continue to die on a daily basis," Kathy Briggs said.
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Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Recent numbers show the crisis has taken hold in the D.C. region. According to statistics from the Maryland Department of Health, 203 more people died from overdoses in the first six months of 2017 than during the same time period in 2016. Sixty-eight percent of overdose deaths in Maryland in the first half of 2017 were related to fentanyl.
In Virginia, drug overdoses were up 15 percent in the first quarter of 2017 and overdose deaths in D.C. nearly tripled between 2014 and 2016.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the parents are from Maryland. They are from Virginia.
