WHEREAS, from 1999 to 2021 more than one million Americans, including more than 33,000 North Carolinians, died from drug overdose deaths; according to updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, the combined medical, social, and personal cost of drug overdose deaths in North Carolina totaled over $37 billion in 2020 alone; and
WHEREAS, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this crisis, with overdose deaths increasing 72 percent since 2019. 4,041 North Carolinians lost their lives to overdose in 2021, the highest recorded number in a single year; and
WHEREAS, the rates of overdose are increasing fastest among Black/African American North Carolinians, with a 139% increase in their overdose death rate from 2019 to 2021 and American Indian/Indigenous communities having the highest overdose rate at 94.1 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2021; and
WHEREAS, since 2020, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has distributed over 719,000 doses of naloxone, the life-saving overdose reversal medication; and
WHEREAS, more than 33,000 individuals received treatment for opioid use disorder from one of the 83 opioid treatment programs in North Carolina; learn more about treatment programs, syringe services programs, and other evidence-based strategies to prevent overdose deaths in North Carolina at www.morepowerful.org; and
WHEREAS, the historic opioid settlement provides a critical opportunity for communities across North Carolina to invest in evidence-based overdose prevention strategies to curb this heartbreaking trend; and
WHEREAS, Overdose Awareness Day is a day to remember those in our great state and across the country whose lives have been lost to overdose, honor family and community grief, acknowledge and address stigma related to substance use and substance use disorders across the continuum, and renew our commitment to ending the overdose crisis;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim August 31, 2023, as “OVERDOSE AWARENESS DAY” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.