International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31

Overdose Awareness Day: Remember. Act.

Date: August 31, 2022 
By: Chase Holleman, LCSW, LCAS, Public Health Advisor, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention

August 31, 2022, is International Overdose Awareness Day, and we pause to honor those who have died from an overdose and to reflect on the grief of those they left behind. Many continue to live with the stigma associated with having a close family or friend die from an overdose.

Overdose is the leading cause of death for people ages 18 to 45 in America today. More than 100,000 people died of an overdose in the United States in the 12-month period ending in March 2022. 1 Many of us know one of the 100,000, some of us know more than one, and some of us may know dozens. Among this group are our children, siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, non-blood relatives, and friends. For many, the observance on August 31 might be the first and only time to share their grief without stigma. International Overdose Awareness Day brings attention to issues surrounding substance use disorders (SUDs) and overdose deaths and allows people to grieve as they choose without fear of stigmatization.

An analysis of overdose deaths from 2019 to 2020 found that:2 

  • Drug overdose deaths increased about 30 percent in the United States from 2019 to 2020.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and disruption in access to prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery services likely contributed to this increase.
  • Recent increases have been largely driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and altered forms of fentanyl.
  • Counties with greater income inequality (a large income gap between rich and poor) had higher rates of overdose deaths.
  • Overdose rates increased by 44 percent for black people and 39 percent for American Indian and Alaska Natives.
  • Most people who died from an overdose had no evidence of substance use treatment before their deaths.
  • Evidence of previous documented treatment was lower among people from racial and ethnic minority groups, compared with white people.
See https://www.samhsa.gov/blog/overdose-awareness-day-remember-act 
for more information about SAMHSA's work to prevent overdose.

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