PLAINFIELD, Ind. — "It's something we wake up thinking about. We go to sleep thinking about," said Jamison Carrier, speaking about losing a child, the kind of pain that never goes away. "It leaves a hole you never fill."
Carrier lost his 38-year-old son, Joey, two years ago to a fentanyl overdose.
That's the day his life changed forever.
"April 15, 2022 we lost him. It was Good Friday," Carrier recalled, saying Joey struggled with addiction most of his adult life.
"Drugs for him was a way to cope with life," Carrier said.
He explained that his son never would have taken fentanyl had he known it was in the drugs he took the day he died.
"The tiniest piece is deadly and, unfortunately, it's taken so many lives," said Carrier.
And other Indiana communities continue to see fentanyl on their streets.
According to Plainfield police, so far this year in Hendricks County, there have been eight overdose deaths, five of them involved fentanyl. One of those deaths was in Plainfield, something the Hendricks County coroner doesn't dispute.
Even though overdose deaths are down in Hendricks County this year, Plainfield police want residents to know fentanyl isn't going anywhere and want families to know, it's showing up in other drugs, too.
Police say even the slightest amount can be deadly.
"I think a lot of people don't consider fentanyl being attached to any other drug you would take. It can be with meth, cocaine, heroin. It can be with anything, or by itself, stand alone or a crushed pill," said Plainfield Police Department Deputy Chief Joe Aldridge.
Just last week, police say they made a traffic stop on U.S. 40 in downtown Plainfield and found fentanyl in that vehicle that they believe the suspect was going to sell.
"A lot of times, they'll put it in a prescription bottle to make it look like it's legitimate," Aldridge explained.
That was the case in last week's traffic stop.
Plainfield police found almost 60 white tablets marked with an "M" and the number "30" in a prescription bottle, but that's not the only way officers are finding the drug.
"We're seeing it crystalized. We're seeing it in powder form, in pill form, even liquid form. You really don't know. It could be in anything you're taking," said Aldridge.
That's why he made a social media post about the traffic stop, warning Plainfield residents fentanyl is still very much a danger.
"It's here and it's not going away anytime soon," said Aldridge.
That's why Carrier isn't staying quiet about what happened to his son.
"We want to do everything in our power to keep this from happening to other families," he said.
As difficult as it is talking about losing Joey, Carrier knows he has to. His love for his son compels him to keep talking.