Every year on Aug. 31, International Drug Overdose Awareness Day, communities around the world remember loved ones whose lives were lost or permanently changed by a drug overdose.
Hope Incorporated and Enlightening Hope Project held Tucson’s fourth annual event Saturday where they gave out bags containing Narcan and a business card with a direct line to mental health and substance abuse support.
The theme of the night was “together we can,” inviting those whose lives were touched by addiction to stand together and support each other. Those who lost a loved one to an overdose were able to write their names on a heart and hang it on the ‘angel tree.’
KGUN9/Alex DowdNaomi Vega is the founder of the Enlightening Hope Project. She’s been hosting an event for International Overdose Awareness Day every year since she lost her son in 2020.
“The person that’s addicted or in recovery, they have a lot of shame and a lot of guilt going on in their life,” she said. “I found that with my son after he passed through friends and family that a lot of the stuff he was going through he was too ashamed to talk about.”