Suncoast Moms Group Holds Remembrance For Those Lost To Overdose Deaths, Calls for Action August 31st for International Overdose Awareness Day

Suncoast Moms Group Holds Remembrance For Those Lost To Overdose Deaths,

Calls for Action August 31st for International Overdose Awareness Day 

 

SARASOTA, FL - Around the world overdose awareness events are held on August 31st; International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) is a global event held each year to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death. It also acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends remembering those lost or permanently injured as a result of drug overdose.

 

Hit hard by first the prescription drug epidemic, and now the increase in heroin deaths, moms  and families in the Suncoast area will be holding a vigil to remember their loved ones and send hope to those still struggling. Approximately seven Floridians lose their lives each day to preventable accidental overdose, with more than 100 lives lost each day nationwide.   #NotOneMore  has come to mean every life is worth saving to these Florida residents. 

 

An International Overdose Awareness Day VIGIL for Remembrance, Action and Hope will be held Sunday, August 31 at 7:00pm starting with dinner on your own at Ricaltini's Bar and Grille, 1997 Kentucky Ave, in Englewood, Florida.  The vigil begins at 8:00pm.

 

“If the loss of this beautiful boy wasn’t heartache enough, imagine how we felt when we discovered that there existed a simple antidote which might have saved him the moment I found him.” said Sarasota mom Jan Spring who discovered her son Derek overdosed at home. 

 

Families are calling for the community to learn more about overdose prevention and naloxone, also known as Narcan, a prescription medication that reverses opiate overdose. “Now is the time to acknowledge the lives lost to overdose, and in their name make naloxone available,” stated Julia Negron, organizer of the Suncoast Harm Reduction Project and mother of a son whose life has been affected by addictive illness and incarceration. 

 

“There are too many roadblocks to recovery now; there’s no rehab if you’re dead.” Advocacy groups have been popping up in response to the rise in heroin overdoses populated by mothers who have lost loved ones, treatment professionals, and public health advocates.  Demonstrations show how easy it is to use the currently available nasal naloxone spray and save a life.   “About an hour of training and any family member, caretaker or friend of someone at risk can feel comfortable having this medication and using it in an emergency,” states Negron, who is a trainer and prescribed to carry naloxone.  “Half of all overdoses happen at home.  It’s heartbreaking to work with mothers who’ve lost kids and realize intervention with naloxone could have saved them, but I applaud their courage in standing up and demanding to help save others.”

 

Fatal drug overdose has increased more than six-fold in the past three decades, and now claims the lives of over 36,000 Americans every year. Access to naloxone for families, caretakers, seniors and drug users is often limited by laws that pre-date the overdose epidemic. In an effort to reduce overdose mortality, 24 states have recently amended laws to increase access to naloxone in the community. Some studies show that increasing access to naloxone to laypeople can reduce the overdose mortality in the community by as much as fifty percent. The moms of the Suncoast Harm Reduction Project have been meeting with Florida legislators to do just that. 

 

"We have been blessed to get broad support from other Florida advocates in our efforts and hope we will be campaigning for statewide naloxone legislation soon” says Negron, who lost her own sister to overdose.  “In the meantime we will go on meeting, educating and holding vigils for our loved ones - we are tired of this waste of precious life.” 

 

The Suncoast Harm Reduction Project is an outreach project of the non-profit advocacy organization A New PATH (Parents For Addiction Treatment and Healing)   This event is the result of a coalition effort of the advocacy groups Suncoast Harm Reduction Project, GRASP, Broken No More, A New PATH, Brandi's Wish, Floridians For Recovery, United We CAN, The Addict's Mom, The Skeeterhawk Experiment and Moms United to End The War On Drugs.