ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) – It was a sunny afternoon in Escondido as Julie Atesalp opened an envelope full of photos.
“There's a good one too,” Atesalp said.
Looking back on photos of lost loved ones is never easy and a parent having to bury their child is gut-wrenching.
"Sometimes are better than other. But i try to make it as a thing we can all learn from it,” Atesalp said.
As ABC 10News reported, Ramsey and Julie Atesalp's 18-year-old son Kai dead in his room in July 2023.
His parents told ABC 10News he bought and took a pill he didn't know was laced with fentanyl.
"We have to be strong but, still aware and then teach our younger children that this is kind of learning experience of the dangers that can affect everybody just off of one simple mistake,” Ramsey Ateslap said.
On Monday, Mexico's president agreed to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border with 10,000 National Guard troops to try and prevent drug trafficking.
"You need both sides to participate in the effort to stop it,” Julie Atesalp said.
That announcement came after President Trump enacted a 25 percent tariff on imports. It’s something that was later put on pause for a month.
According to the agency's data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 22,000 pounds of fentanyl last year along the Southwest border and stopped more than 4,500 pounds this year so far.
These parents who have lived the horrors of the fentanyl crisis firsthand sum up this part of putting the tariff on hold with optimism and hope.
"Yeah, I try to remain hopeful. It's good because it's certainly a lot more than what was done before. I think everyone - including the people that are doing it - had the attitude that it's not going to stop it. But it should help,” Ramsey Atesalp said.
