On June 21, 2019, Micah Sawyer Jr. was found dead by his mom. He was 22 years old and had been sober from heroin for six months before relapsing. The batch he acquired was laced with fentanyl. Game over.
In its second year, Food Not Fentanyl is a celebration of life that takes seriously the task of saving lives. Hosted by harm-reduction foundation Micah’s Hugs in partnership with Petaluma’s Sax’s Joint, the Aug. 30 event will feature lifesaving Narcan demonstrations, “stories of hope,” food trucks and musical performances.
“We’ve given out about 48,000 doses of Narcan,” said Michelle Sawyer, Micah Jr.’s stepmother and secretary of Micah’s Hugs, which also distributes fentanyl testing strips that can be used to test any drug for even tiny traces of fentanyl. The group’s efforts are gaining traction. After four teenage overdoses in one day, two of them fatal, “schools started allowing us to come into their facilities and start education training,” Sawyer said…