Annual global day of action coordinated by Red Cross.
According to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 26,000 Americans die needlessly, pointlessly, from accidental drug overdoses. For example, in San Francisco, there were more drug-related accidental deaths in 2007 than there were deaths by automobile crash. These days, oxycodone is our leading killer, followed by cocaine and heroin.
The Harm Reduction Coalition notes the success of the DOPE project (Drug Overdose Prevention and Education) in San Francisco. DOPE is a community group composed of members trained to recognize and respond to drug overdoses. In San Francisco, one person dies every other day from a preventable drug overdose death.
"Overdose Awareness Day is a time for us to remember the thousands of lives lost to accidental drug overdose every year and to restate our commitment to effective strategies to reduce overdose deaths in our community," said DOPE Project Director Eliza Wheeler. "This year, we would like to publically thank the courageous people who have successfully revived their friends, family members and partners using naloxone."
Over at Injecting Advice, they have gathered together twitter hashtag posts about Overdose Awareness Day:
“Today (31st August) is International Overdose Awareness day and all around the world there are services (and individuals) working hard to raise awareness of the main course of death for people who use drugs. As you'd expect a lot of these people are now using social media like twitter, so I've decided to collect together the mentions of the official 'hashtag' for overdose awareness day.”
In addition, www.injectingadvice.com offers a downloadable OD Awareness Workshop.
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