David’s Fight: How One Man’s Tragedy Will Save Lives

David Siegel is a multimillionaire, a resort-timeshare mogul and the definition of success. As the founder of Westgate Resorts, the largest privately owned timeshare company in the world, Siegel seems to have everything a man could want.

His office sits on the top floor of Westgate corporate headquarters in the heart of Orlando’s tourism district, filled with mementos of his business achievements and pictures of him rubbing shoulders with celebrities and former U.S. presidents.

Siegel and his wife, former Miss Florida Jackie Siegel, are building one of the largest homes in the United States and starred in the documentary “The Queen of Versailles,” which chronicled their home’s construction through the 2008 financial crisis.

No one would know from looking at his life of luxury and success that Siegel works tirelessly every day to end drug addiction, a fight that chose him after he lost his daughter Victoria to an accidental overdose last year.

Victoria Siegel, David and Jackie Siegel’s oldest daughter, was found unresponsive in her family’s Central Florida home on June 6, 2015 and taken to Health Central Hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that Victoria died from a methadone and sertraline overdose.

“Victoria was a beautiful 18-year-old,” David Siegel said about his daughter. “Lovable. Sweet.”

Victoria’s story mirrors those of many others struggling with addiction. In high school, Victoria suffered from anxiety. She started seeing a psychiatrist to treat her condition, which is where her drug use began. The psychiatrist prescribed Xanax to treat Victoria’s anxiety. Siegel admits that at that time, he was unaware of the potential dangers of Xanax and other prescription medications.

In the United States, prescription drug abuse has reached epidemic levels, particularly prescription opioid abuse. In 2013, approximately 1.9 million people in the United States struggled with a prescription painkiller use disorder.

After receiving the Xanax prescription, Victoria developed an addiction and started abusing her medication, all while appearing normal and well to her family.

“I was so oblivious to all this,” Siegel said. “I never saw her walk around dazed or drugged-up. Whenever I saw her she was just acting normal.”

With a great deal of maturity, Victoria recognized she had an addiction and sought help. She even entered an inpatient rehab treatment facility of her own accord. However, Victoria’s stay in rehab lasted only 10 days before she left the facility. She never overcame her addiction and continued to struggle with substance abuse.

In June 2015, Siegel and his family went out of town to attend a wedding. Victoria stayed home to celebrate an anniversary with her boyfriend. With her family away, Victoria endured a cyberbullying attack by her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. Later that morning, Victoria overdosed. She was 18 years old.

Eliminating the Stigma

As Siegel grieved the loss of his daughter, he came to the realization that there is a stigma associated with drug addiction — a stigma preventing others like Victoria from truly receiving the help they need to recover. Those with substance addictions are ashamed to tell anyone because of the potential embarrassment associated with addiction. Those who have loved ones with substance addictions are ashamed to talk about their illness for the same reason.

“A lot of people that die of drug overdoses, the family reports [the cause of death as] heart attack, pneumonia, cancer,” Siegel said. “They can say my son died of cancer and not be ashamed. But if they say my son died of drug overdose, it’s that stigma.”

According to a 2012 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, nearly 40 million Americans meet the clinical criteria for addiction; however, only one in 10 individuals with a substance addiction ever receives treatment.

Nearly 40 million Americans suffer from addiction, but only 1 in 10 ever receives treatment.

For too long society has taken the wrong stance on how it treats people with addictions, says Siegel. In the United States, addiction is seen as a moral failure instead of an illness. In order to help those with addictions, the public has to recognize that addiction is not a choice. It is a disease.

Siegel admits that before Victoria’s death, he, too, looked at addiction with the wrong mentality.

“I thought at that point, and it was only eight months ago, that drug addicts lived under bridges or on park benches,” Siegel said. “Not my kids.”

Siegel says the government’s policies toward fighting addiction are failing the public as a result of the same stigma.

To truly help people struggling with drug addiction, society has to eliminate the stigma that accompanies substance abuse, says Siegel.

“The Surgeon General has basically thrown up his hands in defeat,” Siegel said. “All they do in Washington is issue reports. No direct action.”

Digging deeper, Siegel came to understand that drug addiction is not something that affects only certain types of people. It is not a disease that strikes one race, one gender, one socio-economic background. Siegel realized that addiction can, and does, happen to anyone and that something needs to be done to help the people affected by it.

Instead of waiting for someone else to take action to help others struggling with addiction, Siegel decided to take on the fight himself.

Taking the Fight to UCF

Siegel decided to start his crusade against addiction locally with a group of people in whom drug use runs rampant: college students. With the University of Central Florida, the second largest university in the nation, in his backyard, it seemed like the perfect place to start.

Drug and alcohol use among students is a major concern for the UCF administration and is a problem at almost every university in the country. By late February 2016, the UCF Police Department made 47 arrests related to drugs or alcohol use, according to the department’s daily crime log. Those arrests accounted for more than 57 percent of total arrests. This number doesn’t account for UCF students arrested for drug or alcohol offenses by non-UCF law enforcement, indicating that UCF student substance abuse issues could be even more prevalent than statistics show.

Preventing drug abuse among UCF students remains a priority for Siegel in his battle against addiction.

“I would say that almost every statistic is probably less than what it is in reality,” Siegel said about college student drug use. “When I talk to a college student and I say ‘25 percent of the college students are using drugs,’ they say ‘are you kidding? Probably 50 or 60 percent.’”

Recognizing the pervasiveness of drug use, Siegel began researching and talking to students about substance abuse on campus. He learned that marijuana use is common among college students, that Adderall has become concurrent with studying, and that prescription drug abuse is a normal activity on a day-to-day basis.

What shocked Siegel the most about UCF student drug use was the existence of “pharm parties.” At pharm parties students bring an assortment of prescription drugs and place them in a community bowl. Partygoers take the drugs randomly while drinking.

“It could be heart medicine, who knows what,” Siegel said. “They throw it in a bowl, and the kids are drinking all night and they’re popping pills from this bowl. They have no idea what they’re taking.”

Working with UCF officials, Siegel identified a number of ways to prevent substance abuse on campus and ways to save students from drug overdoses. One way was through education.

Siegel and the UCF administration have started the conversation about creating a drug abuse and addiction class for all incoming freshman. The goal of this course is to give every UCF student accurate information regarding the dangers of drug abuse, the signs of addiction and a plan of action for overdose. This is just one of the ways in which Siegel is trying to protect younger people from the battle with addiction.

As a result of his passion, Siegel’s efforts to help students navigate addiction have been held in high regard by UCF administration.

“I applaud Mr. Siegel for his commitment to preventing substance abuse and helping those who are in recovery,” said UCF president, John Hitt.

Establishing an addiction awareness class for UCF freshmen would represent a huge achievement for Siegel; however, his biggest campus impact may not be prevention. His biggest impact may be the lives he will save with a medication called naloxone.

Victoria’s Law

On Jan. 6, 2016, Florida State Sen. Rene Garcia filed the Drug Safety bill (S.B. 1378). If passed, this bill would require Florida pharmacies to offer bags with locks for prescription drugs, giving medication recipients a place to safely store them. The bill would also authorize the Florida Department of Health to develop and distribute pamphlets that give factual information about the risks associated with prescription drugs, especially painkillers, at all Florida pharmacies. Getting this bill — a bill that is affectionately known as “Victoria’s Law” — passed has become one of Siegel’s highest priorities.

Working alongside Sen. Garcia, lobbyists and other political consultants, Siegel is examining every aspect of Victoria’s Law to expedite the process of getting the bill passed through the Florida Legislature.

Siegel joins Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs to announce the introduction of the Orange County Heroin Task Force.

“I’ve developed a small (bag) — it looks like a bank deposit bag with a zipper with a combination lock on it,” Siegel said. “I’m going to get the drug stores and the pharmacies to give them out whenever anybody fills a prescription for an opioid. They’re going to give one of these bags to go along with it to start the conversation and also a little pamphlet that says why you need to lock up your drugs.”

Siegel attributes the abundance of prescription drug addiction in the United States to doctors’ readiness to write prescriptions, a general lack of understanding about the dangers of prescription drugs and the easy accessibility to prescription drugs. Siegel wants people to know that just because a doctor prescribes a medication does not mean that the prescription comes without risks.

“Doctors will give you a prescription,” Siegel said. “[Patients] have no idea that it’s addictive. I mean Adderall and Xanax and all these other things — they’re highly addictive — and they’re giving them out like candy.”

By working to have Victoria’s Law passed, Siegel believes he is laying the foundation to have stricter laws for locking up prescriptions in the future.

“If I get this bill passed through the legislature here, then I’ll try and take this nationwide,” Siegel said. “This is kind of like the proving ground.”