International Overdose Awareness Day

Evelyn Hill

Special to the Village News

It’s no secret that opioid use weighs heavily on U.S. communities. More than 81,000 people died from opioid overdoses from June 2019 to May 2020, but hidden inside the death tolls of overdoses are the significant number of people who took their own lives as a result of opioid addiction and abuse.

Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day. The day has been set aside since 2001 to spread “the message about the tragedy of drug overdose death and that drug overdose death is preventable.” Similarly, suicide, which is the second leading cause of death fo...