More than 136 Americans die each day from drug overdose, according to drugabusestatistics.org, and the City of Yelm is taking steps to spread awareness and the threat using drugs poses.
At a Yelm City Council meeting on Aug. 22, Mayor Joe DePinto proclaimed August 31 as Overdose Awareness Day in Yelm through a mayoral proclamation. The mayor recognized the opioid and overdose crisis as both a local and national issue.
“I don’t usually go into too (much) personal stuff here when I’m doing proclamations, or anything, but I do think this is a prevalent issue affecting our community right now, not just ours, but a lot of communities across Washington state and the nation,” DePinto said. “We are doing things with our county partners to make sure people that do have overdoses, we’re helping them either through treatment or different programs.”
According to drugabusestatistics.org, the national overdose rate is 21.6 deaths per 100,000 residents. Amongst 15-to 24-year-olds, the average annual overdose death rate is 12.6 out of every 100,000. According to their statistics, men are more than twice as likely to die from drug overdose than women are.
“International Overdose Awareness Day is recognized globally on Aug. 31 to raise awareness about the risks of overdosing, recognize the lives that have been lost or impacted from overdosing and acknowledge the grief felt by families, friends and communities,” Mayor DePinto said as he read the proclamation. “The overdose epidemic has taken a heartbreaking toll on our Nation, claiming the lives of far too many Americans devastating families and communities across the country.”
DePinto said that every person deserves a city’s best efforts to prevent injury and death from overdose, and that it’s imperative to support overdose prevention policies and projects. He added that he wants to make sure everyone understands that overdose is a social issue and impacts the victim, their family and community.
“As the overdose epidemic has evolved, synthetic opioids — particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl — now drive the majority of overdose deaths. It is becoming more common for individuals to use drugs without knowing that it contains fentanyl and are overdosing as a result,” DePinto said. “Overdose Awareness Day is a time to remember those tragically lost to overdose and the pain of the families who are left behind and also an opportunity to recommit ourselves to working together to build safe, healthy, resilient communities.”
