OU Health Services will host an International Overdose Awareness Day event on Thursday where they will promote Narcan, recovery services and hand out free items on the South Oval.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon south of the Bizzell Memorial Library with OU Health Services workers handing out first aid kits, hand sanitizer, pill container keychains and drug deactivation systems.
OU Health will supply Deterra, a drug deactivation system used to neutralize pills, liquid and patches in an environmentally friendly way instead of flushing them or otherwise disposing of them.
In a statement from the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote drug overdose deaths leveled off in 2022 after increases in the three years prior.
According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, from January 2020 to January 2021, there were 94,788 reported overdose deaths compared to the same time period between 2021 and 2022 with 107,796 reported overdose deaths and between 2022 and 2023 with an estimated 108,407.
Biden requested $46.1 billion for national drug control programs in the 2024 Fiscal Year budget, according to the release.
“The Congress must act to invest in solutions that will prevent these drugs from ever hitting our streets and getting into the hands of our loved ones,” Biden wrote.
This story was edited by Alexia Aston and Taylor Jones. Mary Ann Livingood and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
