A series of community-led events dedicated to building community and momentum around the national movement for overdose prevention centers (OPCs). In honor of International Overdose Awareness Day, National Solidarity Week events will be held August 25 – August 31, 2024 across the country.
OPCs are health care settings where people can bring and consume their own drugs, with trained staff available to intervene if an overdose occurs.
August 15, 2024 / 11AM – 2PM
San Francisco: Youth Overdose Awareness Event
Join us at Larkin Street Youth Services (134 Golden Gate Avenue) to learn how to prevent overdoses, reduce risks, respond effectively, and administer CPR. Enjoy a free lunch and enter to win raffle prizes!
Email [email protected] for more information.
August 15, 2024 / 11AM – 3PM
San Francisco: Black/AA Overdose Awareness
Join us for a Black/AA Overdose Awareness Event at Code Tenderloin (1221 Mission Street).
August 30, 2024 / 12PM
Venice, CA: Overdose Awareness Memorial
Common Ground and Venice Family Clinic are inviting patients, clients, staff and community members to add the names of loved ones who have lost their lives to overdose to our Overdose Awareness memorial. Please join us at Common Ground on 8/30 at 12pm for a moment of silence for those who were lost.
August 31, 2024
Skid Row: Community March & Rally
Harm reductionists will march through the 50 blocks of Skid Row to build power and insist that policymakers stem the tide of overdoses. This event is specifically for drug users to share their love, rage, and solidarity. Politicians, health providers, media and others are welcome to attend.
More details to come!
August 31, 2024 / 1-5PM
West Hollywood: Harm Reduction Pop-Up
Join Being Alive Harm Reduction Center (7976 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90046) for a harm reduction pop-up. We will provide educational materials, and narcan and fentanyl strips.
August 26, 2024 / 4:15 PM
Denver: Press Conference & City Council Proclamation
Join us on the east steps of the Denver City and County Building (1437 Bannock St) at 4:15pm for a press conference. At 5:30PM, Denver City Council will issue a proclamation to recognize and honor our loved ones we have lost to preventable overdose deaths and overdose survivors for International Overdose Awareness Day. Wear purple & harm reduction gear, bring your friends and your freak flags too!
Follow the Colorado Drug Policy Coalition webpage for updates and calls to action throughout National Solidarity Week.
August 31, 2024
Denver: International Overdose Awareness Day Event
Harm reduction advocates will stand in solidarity with people who use drugs to educate about the potential risks of drug use, including overdose; as well as the lifesaving benefits of a harm reduction approach.
August 29, 2024 / 8:30AM – 4:30PM
Wilmington: Harm Reduction Conference
Impact Life is hosting a Harm Reduction Conference at the Doubletree Downtown Wilmington. The conference will include conversations about the importance of overdose prevention centers (OPCs) and will feature a mock OPC! For more information, contact [email protected].
August 25 – 31, 2024
Greater STL Metro East Area: Overdose Prevention Services
The Porchlight Collective SAP will be leading initiatives during this week as a direct effort to safeguard the lives of people who use drugs in our community and to stand against the empty promises that continue to perpetuate the war on drugs.
We invite the community to stay connected with us as we engage in our upcoming actions that prioritize health, dignity, and safety for people who use drugs in the Greater STL Metro East area and beyond.
August 28, 2024 / 1-3PM
Chicago: A Community Conversation– Ending Overdose Through Harm Reduction
Illinois Harm Reduction & Recovery Coalition and Healthcare Alternative Systems (H.A.S.) invite you to join us at H.A.S.’ community room (4734 W. Chicago Ave) for a round table panel, a mock overdose prevention site, and harm reduction resources to build momentum towards HB2, legislation to legalize a pilot OPC.
Panelists include Dr. Tanya Sorrell (Rush University), Sam Rivera (OnPointNYC), Rep. LA Shawn K. Ford (State Representative), and Dr. Jenny Hua (Chicago Department of Public Health).
Register today at IllinoisHarmReduction.org
August 31, 2024 / 11-2PM
Hallowell: Naloxone Community Canvas
We are going door to door to train our neighbors and provide them with Naloxone. This hands-on event offers a unique opportunity to make a real difference in our community. Whether you’re an experienced volunteer or new to service, your participation is invaluable.
Meet us at Hallowell City Hall (1 Winthrop St, Hallowell, ME) to support and protect our community. Be part of Project Doorstep and help save lives!
August 28, 2024 / 12-4PM
Baltimore: Overdose Prevention Center Demonstration
BRIDGES Coalition will hold an overdose prevention center demonstration two doors down from SPARC, A Center for Women. We welcome SPARC participants, neighbors, business leaders and anyone who wants to learn more about how overdose prevention centers can improve communities!
And on the morning of August 30th, look to the sky to see a message of hope in Baltimore City!
For more info contact [email protected] or [email protected].
August 31, 2024 / 9AM
St. Louis: Gathering and Tribute to Lives Lost
Join MoNetwork at the Concordia Lutheran Church on Overdose Awareness Day for our co-hosted tribute walk to honor all of the friends and family we’ve lost to preventable deaths. Please bring lightly used shoes for remembrance, display, and donation. Resources and Narcan will be available.
August 31st, 2024 / 2pm-4pm
Trenton: Community Gathering
The KIND Collective (TKC) will host a gathering at Mill Hill Park in Old City Trenton to honor those lost to accidental overdoses in the 609. This event will unite people from diverse backgrounds, offering a safe space to grieve, share stories, and learn about Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs) and the benefits of harm reduction work.
August 31st, 2024 / 4pm-7pm
Trenton: Community Awareness and Solidarity Event
Join us in traveling all four wards of the City of Trenton to show solidarity with people who use drugs, providing harm reduction education, overdose prevention training, and connecting them with local harm reduction resources.
August 31, 2024 / 2PM – 7PM
Silver City: Overdose Prevention Screening and Memorial
Join us for a screening of “Untreated & Unheard: The Addiction Crisis in America” at the Silco Theater followed by a group walk to Pocket Park to honor those of whom we have lost to overdose.
Register here; click here to learn more; and read the recent press release.
August 28, 2024 / 11AM
New York City: Rally to End Overdose Deaths
Rally with Drug Policy Alliance, VOCAL-NY, and Housing Works to demand leadership that takes the politics out of public health, and implement solutions like accessible housing, expanded access to non-punitive services and authorization of overdose prevention centers, to save lives.
Meet us outside of Governor Hochul’s New York City Office (633 3rd Avenue, Manhattan) at 11AM. The governor’s inaction on the overdose crisis is one of her growing list of failures. We’re done with empty promises and never ending funerals.
RSVP here.
August 28, 2024 / 1-4PM
New York City: Rescue-Breathing Trainings, Community BBQ, & Mural Memorial
Join OnPointNYC at our East Harlem site (104 -106 E 126th Street) for a rescue-breathing themed event. We will offer rescue-breathing training and interactive activities, host a community BBQ, and hold a memorial for the community members we’ve lost to the overdose crisis.
Participants, staff, and the broader community are invited to honor their lost loved ones by adding their names to a new mural, which will be unveiled at this event.
August 30, 2024 / 1-4PM
New York City: Rescue-Breathing Trainings, Community BBQ, & Mural Memorial
Join OnPointNYC at our Washington Heights site (500 W 180th Street) for a rescue-breathing themed event. We will offer rescue-breathing training and interactive activities, host a community BBQ, and hold a memorial for the community members we’ve lost to the overdose crisis.
Participants, staff, and the broader community are invited to honor their lost loved ones by adding their names to a new mural, which will be unveiled at this event.
August 29, 2024 / 6PM
Philadelphia: Walk in Remembrance
Walk with Community Liver Alliance as we remember our loved ones lost to overdose death and build awareness in one of the hardest hit communities in Philadelphia and in the United States.
We will start at outside of SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line Huntingdon Station, walk north on Kensington Avenue, with a couple of stops, and work our way up to McPherson Square Park. At the park, there will be tributes to those we have lost, educational resources, and speakers to commemorate our action.
August 31, 2024 / 7-9PM
El Paso: International Overdose Awareness day
Please wear purple and join us at Memorial Park (1781 N Copia St, El Pasio, TX 79938) for a blessing of everyone present and all lives lost, a presentation of life with substance use disorder, a candle lighting ceremony, and an opportunity to share your thoughts and stories.
Send names, stories, and photos of loved ones you have lost to overdose to elpasoharmreductionalliance [at] gmail.com.
August 31st, 2024 / 6pm-9pm
Austin: Annual End Overdose Event and Fundraiser
Join us for our annual End Overdose event and fundraiser on Saturday, August 31st at Yellow Jacket Social Club in Austin, TX from 6 – 9 pm. While honoring IOAD, we will also be advocating for the tools we need to prevent overdoses, including OPCs.
August 29, 2024
Burlington: OPC National Solidarity Week Gathering
Local advocates will gather in City Hall Park to honor our loved ones taken from us by accidental overdose deaths; celebrate our legislators and their constituents for overriding the Governor’s H.72 veto to authorize the opening of an OPC; and build community surrounding the opening of Vermont’s very first OPC in Burlington.
More details to come!
Since 2000, 1.1 million people in the US have died of a preventable overdose, with nearly 110,000 lives lost to preventable overdoses in 2023 alone. Overdose death rates are so high that they have caused a decrease in overall life expectancy in the US. The crisis is most severe for historically marginalized and under-resourced communities; low income, unhoused, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, and people living in rural settings are dying at disproportionate rates.
OPCs are health care settings designed to reduce the potential risks of drug use, including overdose deaths. At an OPC, people can bring and consume their own drugs in safe and hygienic spaces, with trained staff available to intervene if an overdose occurs.
OPCs increase connection to stigma-free medical and mental healthcare, including drug treatment; life-sustaining resources such as food, showers, and laundry services; and, most importantly, community.
OPCs improve public health by reducing public drug use and drug-related litter, minimizing the spread of infectious diseases, and saving money by dramatically shrinking the burden on emergency response services.
Today, nearly 200 OPCs operate around the world. Two sanctioned OPCs currently operate in the United States and a third OPC is scheduled to open in late 2024.
We are a community of people and organizations guided by a shared vision of a world that protects the health, safety, and dignity of people who use drugs. We are harm reductionists, health advocates, service providers, people who use drugs, people who live in communities harmed by the drug war, and people who have lost loved ones to overdose deaths. Together, we are fighting to put people over profit, save lives, and reduce harm for people who use drugs, including by opening, operating, and expanding overdose prevention centers.
Historically, the government has blamed Black and Brown communities for the “drug problem,” labeling drug use as a moral failing rather than a structural one. This rhetoric was designed to justify the policing, punishment, and incarceration of unprecedented numbers of predominantly Black and Brown people. We have spent $1 trillion dollars trying to arrest our way out of this problem, but criminalization only makes it harder for people to get help and access services. Imagine how one trillion dollars could have been spent towards effective solutions that center support, not criminalization.
Make your voice heard on the future of drug policy reform during this critical election season!