United States Drug Enforcement Administration

EL PASO – Jennipher Talamantes, a counselor at an El Paso school district, and Jennifer and David Burke, the Executive Directors of Serenity Mesa Recovery Center in Albuquerque, were the only El Pasoan and New Mexicans invited to meet with Administrator Anne Milgram as part of the first-ever DEA Family Summit on the Overdose Epidemic.

Talamantes lost her son after taking a fake Percocet that was actually a counterfeit made with fentanyl. She is now doing grass-root awareness and outreach in El Paso. The Burke family lost a son to a heroin overdose after he became addicted to prescription opioids following a sports injury. They started Serenity Mesa, a treatment center in Albuquerque for teenagers, and HAC (Healing Addiction in our Community), a non-profit for education and awareness.

Carlos Briano, Demand Reduction Coordinator for the DEA El Paso Division, will accompany Talamantes and the Burke’s to the two-day summit being held June 14-15 at DEA Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

“These two families have experienced tragic loss due to an overdose, and they have been helping raise awareness in our two largest communities,” said Greg Millard, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s El Paso Division. “Our goal through this summit is to create more ways to work together so that others do not experience what they have been through. DEA stands with them.”

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