Flowers and pictures lined the walls of the Lakeside Pavilion on Aug. 31 as people shed tears, hugged each other and shared stories to honor the lives lost to drug overdose.
International Overdose Awareness Day takes place annually on Aug. 31 and is “the world’s largest campaign to end overdose.” In 2023, over 100,000 Americans died of a drug overdose.
Members of the UM community joined the Sandler Center, UM Student Health, URecovery and F Fentanyl Inc. for one of the many IOAD events that took place around the world.
The event began with Director Miami-Dade County Public Housing and Community Development Brenda Lampon presenting the Proclamation for Overdose Awareness Day from the Miami-Dade Mayor’s Office and Board of County Commission. The proclamation recognizes the importance of IOAD and raising awareness for drug-related diseases and deaths.
UM alumna Sarah Couper spoke about her son Maxwell Quevedo-Cooper. Quevedo-Cooper died of an overdose in November 2016 when he was 19 years old.
“He was an artist. He played the bass in the school orchestra. He played on a travel and school baseball teams. He loved fishing. He loved he animals, and he was probably somebody of the future, but now he’s part of the generation that’s now gone, and we’ll never know what all those people could have done,” said Couper.
Couper explained that she used to be like many Americans who think that drug addiction is a conscious decision.
“I spent a lot of time being very angry at him, not understanding his disease and thinking it was something that he chose to do,” Couper said.
Couper went on to discuss the advancements in treatment of drug overdose in recent years and her support for programs UM has put in place such as Narcan trainings and needle exchanges.
“If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would’ve said ‘Are you crazy? You’re putting something in place where people can go and use drugs, aren’t you encouraging it?’ No, they’re going to use their drugs regardless, so why don’t we try and keep them alive until they have decided to seek recovery?” said Couper.
Couper then read a speech given by a behavioral pharmacologist at a group meeting for parents who have lost their children to drug overdose. The speech gave an in-depth glimpse into the life of someone struggling with drug addiction.
“We do these things not because we want to do them, but because we have to do them to survive. We become desperate, and in our desperation, we do things that we know are wrong. We do things that we know are not us,” Couper read.
Yamila Rollan Escalona also spoke at the event. She is the founder of Yaya Por Vida, a harm reduction organization. Rollan Escalona lost her sister Yaritza “Yaya” Rollan to a fentanyl overdose in December 2019.
Rollan was a tattoo artist and had planned to open her own tattoo studio before she died.
“She was dedicated to the arts. She was unapologetic. She was powerful. She was rebellious,” Rollan Escalona said.
Rollan Escalona emphasized how she feels current rules on drug usage are part of the problem and are in part responsible for the number of drug overdoses.
“The drug is inherently not a problem, The problem is the policies that we’re putting our folks through. Policies have failed our people, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re not here,” Rollan Escalona said.
The last speaker was Camille Lewis, the founder of the non-profit ColorNRaw, which helps support the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. Lewis currently has a parent who is fighting drug addiction.
“I was reared to ignore that loved one, but I could not. I refused to ignore that someone because you have to speak to the person. You can’t speak to the drug, You have to love the person without hating the drug because the drug didn’t do it,” Lewis said.
Lewis, a transgender woman herself, is passionate about advocating for trans people facing drug addiction and feels they are underrepresented when discussing societal issues.
“As I did my research for this, there was no research for trans individuals. The trans community is just getting justice for the murders of trans individuals. We’re just now getting publicity,” Lewis said.
The event ended with a candlelight vigil and the audience having the opportunity to share any names of people in their life lost to drug overdose.
Visit @umsandlercenter and @urecoveryandallies on Instagram for more information on ways to get involved in the drug overdose recovery movement on campus.