Dawn Allen's son, Benjamin, grew up watching her campaign for Democrats.

My enthusiasm about Joe Biden was probably greater than any other President that's ever run before.

Then, two years into the Biden administration, Dawn's son went to bed and never woke up.

We were able to establish that he got a counterfeit pill that was pressed with elicidfentanil. And Benjamin was one of four young people in Lake County, where we live, who who died of illicit fence down.

As she mourned, she became frustrated by what she feels is inaction by the Biden administration on the opioid crisis. And she grew increasingly attracted to Donald Trump's tough talk.

And it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels.

Don is part of a growing number of opioid-affected families who have embraced Trump.

It feels like a really bad breakup.

Some even rallying with former Trump officials. Please welcome American Mom and Thunder. Republicans highlighted the crisis in prime time at their convention, featuring a mom whose son died from fentanyl poisoning. This fight is for your children. By contrast, no prime time speaker at the Democratic National Convention mentioned the opioid crisis even after activists tried to draw attention by hanging billboards around Chicago. Trump talks about fentanyl often.

Fentanyl is laced into everything now. It's horrible.

It's horrible, yeah. I think that the Biden administration has let get so wildly out of control that maybe the only way to get it back underway is to have somebody who's willing to come in and be the bad guy.

A White House spokesperson disputed that Biden allowed the fentanyl problem to fester. But under Biden, deaths from fentanyl rose by 30 % to more than 70,000. Experts say a slight decrease in deaths last year is probably due to the increased use of NARCAN that reverses overdoses, something Biden made widely available. The Biden administration captured two liters of the Mexican cartel that exports the most fentanyl, but no one believes that will stop the flow. Biden also significantly increased access to treatment. Trump says he will close the border and use the military to target Mexican cartel leaders. But that would be an act of war against an ally.

The opioid crisis is the most lethal drug epidemic ever in human history.

Wanda Felbab-Brown has studied illegal drugs for decades. She says neither party has a magic bullet. So this is a devilishly A divestition is a relatively difficult problem.

It is a devilishly difficult problem. Getting to a situation where there is no fentanyl coming to the United States, it's just not realistic.

The White House says they've met with hundreds of families and have made the issue a top priority. The Harris campaign told us if she wins, she would revive the border security bill and seek even more money for treatment. Some experts call Trump's emphasis misguided. He focuses on shutting down illegal border crossings, but most fentanyl is smuggled in by Americans through legal ports of entry. But they also say the Biden-Harris administration has not been nearly tough enough in the face of Mexican government inaction and corruption. Hey, hey, ho, ho. Fentanyl has got to go. Dawn and other fentanyl families want the issue on the front burner.

We don't feel seen. We don't feel heard.

Kendalanian, NBC News, Washington.

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