When Michelle Watson lost her son to fentanyl in August 2020 she vowed to save other mothers from experiencing her agony. It took her awhile to battle through her depression, but Watson is now going full-throttle.
Watson created The 1:11 Project in November, gave a school presentation in Big Lake in January, created a website and stood before the Odessa City Council last month.
On Saturday, the project is co-hosting a rally at the Ector County Courthouse from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Tributes will be made to those who have lost their lives to fentanyl and educational materials will be handed out by co-host Association of People Against Lethal Drugs and other organizations like Reach Recovery.
On Aug. 5, 2020, Watson said her son, Malachi Mitchell, was a 20-year-old man who was raising his 1-year-old son Julion, with his girlfriend, Noelle in Midland, working security and striving to obtain his GED. He’d spent the day with Julion and Noelle and that night decided to go out with some friends.
At 1:30 a.m., Watson said she got a call from Noelle.
“She’s just screaming saying, ‘You have to get over here. Malachi is blue and his feet are cold’ and I just remember jumping up out of the bed. I mean, I don’t even remember putting my clothes on. I just flew across town,” Watson said. “When I ran up the three flights of stairs into her apartment and I just saw him lying on the floor, I knew that he was gone. I mean, I knew it. He’s my son. I’m yelling at him. I’m asking him ‘Please wake up,’ but I could tell that he was gone. I could feel it in my soul.”
She would later learn Malachi had asked someone for Percocet, a pain reliever made of oxycodone and acetaminophen.
Unbeknownst to him, it also contained a lethal amount of fentanyl.
“We, as mothers, do not call it an overdose at all because they didn’t know what they were getting. None of these kids knew that they were ingesting fentanyl, synthetic fentanyl that is coming from China and Mexico. They all thought that they were taking whatever they asked for, you know, my Malachi for instance, wanted to take a Percocet,” Watson said.
She knows another mother who lost a daughter when she unknowingly took Ibuprofen that had been laced with fentanyl. She’d had a headache at a party and asked for a Tylenol or its equivalent, Watson said.
It is now her mission to educate parents and kids alike that tragedies like hers are happening every 11 seconds in the United States. Hence the name of her organization.
“These kids want to live this YouTube lifestyle, and they think it’s all fun and games and ‘Oh, let’s go.’ There’s the Lil Wayne song talking about popping Molly and of course that’s what they all want to go do because they hear it on the radio and on TV and everything else. So was (Malachi) a perfect kid? No, but is any kid perfect? No,” Watson said.
Since Malachi died, Watson, an insurance agent, said she has met entirely too many parents who have also lost their children to fentanyl. Several have joined her in her efforts to educate the public about fentanyl, which can kill in doses as small as 2 mgs.
She was thrilled when Odessa city council members invited her to join them when they announced April 25 that the city will receive $600,000 to fight the opioid crisis.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined finalized opioid agreements with CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and the opioid manufacturer Allergan, thus securing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.
During the April 25 meeting, Mayor Javier Joven said Councilmember Denise Swanner suggested the city apply for a portion of the settlements. The city received its first check of more than $175,000 recently and Police Chief Mike Gerke is working with Swanner and Councilmember Mark Matta to determine how the funds should be spent.
“I would hope that they would donate to local organizations that are actually out here with boots on the ground, trying to fight this because we could definitely use it,” Watson said. “I mean me going into schools and presentations, print materials are costly. Travel, things like that it costs so, any little bit helps.”
If you go
- What: The 1:11 Project Rally.
- When: 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, May 6.
- Where: Ector County Courthouse.
