West Virginia family joins President Trump at White House to sign HALT Fentanyl Act into law

NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. (WTRF) – West Virginia leads the nation in overdose deaths, and nearly 76% of those fatalities are linked to fentanyl.  

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a new act into law called the HALT Fentanyl Act.

He was surrounded by several families, including a West Virginia family that’s been personally impacted by the epidemic. 

It’s been five years since Steve and Diana Estep of New Martinsville lost their 24-year-old son, Drew, to a fentanyl overdose. 

Since then, Diana has been advocating for change and raising awareness surrounding the deadly substance, traveling to the nation’s capital to march in front of the White House.  

She said they didn’t think they were being heard – until now.  

Her years of hard work finally came to fruition Wednesday afternoon as President Trump signed the new act into law, and she and her husband were in Washington, D.C. to see it happen. 

“You would still be surprised at how many people do not understand what it is, think it doesn’t affect them, think it’s not going to affect them,” Diana said. “And kids are being deceived. Whether it’s the first time they try it or whether somebody who suffers substance abuse and didn’t ask for the fentanyl but was given the fentanyl unwillingly, did not know it. People don’t realize that the number that we are losing, we’re losing a whole generation.”

Diana shared that her son struggled with substance abuse and was in and out of rehab for about six years.

“He wasn’t able to stop because for him, the substance was what made him feel okay about himself. So, Drew was a user that was basically self-medicating, it was never to have fun. He would say to us, you know, ‘you don’t understand, mom, I can’t’ or ‘dad, I can’t be alone inside my own head,'” Diana said.

The HALT Fentanyl Act permanently classifies fentanyl-related drugs as a Schedule I substance due to its high potential for abuse. Other drugs on this list include heroin and LSD.  

President Trump met with The Estep’s and other families who have been directly impacted by the fentanyl crisis.  

Anyone caught trafficking these illicit poisons will be punished with a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence in prison. We’ll be getting the drug dealers, pushers and peddlers off our streets. And we will not rest until we have ended the drug overdose epidemic.
President Donald Trump

Experts say fentanyl is nearly 50 times more potent than heroin, and about 100 times more potent than morphine.  

Senator Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV) spoke to WBOY’s Nexstar affiliate 7News about the new legislation. She says although overdose statistics are going down in West Virginia, more work needs to be done – and this new law is a step in the right direction.  

“The penalties are much higher. There’s a much stricter enforcement around it and also the look alikes, because people are going one offs from fentanyl and creating other types of drugs,” Capito said. “It will allow for the innovation to occur to make sure that the research around these drugs is up to date. So, that they can be recognized and stopped, and it will help with our law enforcement as well, to be able to halt the flow of fentanyl into this country.”

For the Estep’s, while the law doesn’t bring back their son, they say it helps save others in his memory. Drew unknowingly bought drugs laced with fentanyl from a drug dealer who has since been incarcerated.   

“The importance of trying to hold the dealers accountable, we’re saving lives by that as well,” Diana said. “And very, very few of these deaths ever get to that point of justice. And I’m happy that Drew’s life did get justice and is helping to save other people by the fact that his dealer is no longer dealing.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between January 2024 and January 2025 alone, more than 700 people in West Virginia died from a drug overdose.