GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Galveston County is southeast Houston's escape from reality. While the beauty is easy to see why so many go there, there's another side generating headlines. On Christmas Day, Galveston police said two men died after taking drugs laced with fentanyl.
The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office told ABC13, in 2021 and in the first 11 months of 2022, 138 people died from drug overdose. Fifty-six percent of those are link to fentanyl. It's a crisis that's led groups to make posters showing the faces of those who've died from the drug, as their smiling photos hide the pain their loved ones can't let go.
The video above is the ABC13 Houston's 24/7 Streaming Channel.
"The reality that something so small can take something so big, and the reality that there's such evil to do this," Janice Stahl, who lost her son to fentanyl, said.
Grieving mothers like Stahl are turning to Les McColgin, who started Gulf Coast Outreach Services, in order to reach other parents, neighbors, and students.
His goal is to combat the fentanyl crisis, which is a problem he can also relate to because he's overdosed three times himself.
"I was never scared of any drugs," McColgin recalled. "Never. The stronger the better."
SEE RELATED STORY: University of Houston researchers announce potential breakthrough vaccine against fentanyl
That's changed.
McColgin shares his fear with groups, and more recently with the local rotary club.
But he wanted to go beyond speaking engagements, so he created a billboard that flashes above the Gulf Freeway. McColgin pays $500 a month to reach as many drivers as he can.
Les McColgin, right, rents out a billboard in Galveston County that flashes a message: "Fentanyl Kills, Narcan Saves Lives."
"I prayed about it and I said, 'I need to do this,'" he recalled. "You see it, you get the message: 'Fentanyl kills. Narcan saves lives.'"
Narcan is a spray used during an overdose that can save someone's life.
McColgin isn't stopping at just billboards. Tonight on ABC13 after Monday Night Football, Eyewitness News is getting inside access into his plan to make the life-saving Narcan free across the county. We go to the one place in the area where picking up the spray is as simple as choosing a snack from a vending machine.
SEE ALSO: ABC13 given rare access inside DEA lab fighting Houston's fentanyl crisis
For updates on this story, follow Nick Natario on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Narcan vending machine Texas: Fentanyl crisis motivates Gulf Coast Outreach Services founder Les McColgin - KTRK-TV
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