This Sunday is International Overdose Awareness Day. A colorful effort launched today in Greensboro to educate the public. In LeBauer Park downtown, huge purple ribbons and bows with overdose fact sheets attached are tied to tree trunks and blow in the breeze.
Paint the Parks Purple is an initiative to raise awareness about the overdose epidemic, which last year claimed more than 3,000 lives in North Carolina. Mary Houser is with the Greensboro Community Safety Department. She says her focus is not on a person’s drug history.
"It’s more, where are you now?" she says. "Like, how can I help you? Is it just about you staying alive? So I need to connect you with a harm reduction to where they have safe supplies and, you know, just stay alive out of infectious disease. Sometimes that's the win. You gradually get them through the process."
The free program is city and grant-funded and provides a wide variety of services, like peer support, to help break the cycle of dependency.