08/31/2026
💜 Turn Facebook Purple for Overdose Awareness Month
Overdose is not something that happens to “other families.”
It happens to moms. Dads. Brothers. Sisters. Best friends. Partners. Coworkers. Children.
And behind every overdose statistic is a person whose absence leaves a hole that numbers will never explain.
In recent years, drug overdose deaths in the United States have remained staggeringly high, with synthetic opioids such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl involved in a large share of fatal overdoses. Fentanyl can also show up in counterfeit pills and in supplies people may not expect to contain opioids at all.
And the drug supply keeps changing.
Substances like xylazine and other emerging adulterants can complicate overdose response and increase medical risk. That is exactly why education, naloxone access, drug checking when available, and not using alone matter.
💜I have lost friends and people I cared about to overdose. And there is something uniquely heavy about those deaths.
People whisper.
They speculate.
They reduce an entire life to how the person died.
Families are left grieving while also carrying stigma that never belonged to them.
🖤That needs to change.
Their person was more than the substance they used.
They had people who loved them.
They had stories.
They had jokes.
They had birthdays.
They had people who would give anything for one more phone call.
And some of us are still living with that fear every single day.
We are still watching our phones.
Still carrying Narcan.
Still praying that our loved one survives long enough to find recovery.
That is why harm reduction matters to me.
Not because I have accepted addiction.
Not because I don’t want something better.
Because dead people cannot recover.
Naloxone does not approve of addiction.
It interrupts an opioid overdose.
And sometimes that intervention becomes another birthday.
Another hug.
Another chance.
Another opportunity for someone to say, “I’m ready.”
So this month, I’m asking you to turn Facebook purple.
💜 Share overdose education.
💜 Carry naloxone and know how to use it.
💜 Learn the signs of an overdose.
💜 Call 911 when someone is unresponsive or not breathing normally.
💜 Encourage people not to use alone.
💜 Support access to drug-checking tools where available.
💜 Talk about the people we have lost without shame.
💜 Remind the people still here that their lives are worth saving.
And then challenge someone else to do the same.
Because overdose awareness should not belong only to families who have already been forced to understand it.
Learn before you need it. Carry Narcan before someone needs it. Care before it becomes a memorial.
My slogan for this month:
Keep them here long enough for the story to change. 💜
For the people we lost.
For the families left behind.
For the people still struggling.
And for every parent still whispering:
Please, just give me one more day.
