People lost to overdoses remembered in Louisville, march held for drug awareness | News from WDRB [Video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — People lost to overdoses were remembered on Saturday in downtown Louisville.

Louisville nonprofit VOCAL-KY led a community event at Jefferson Square Park on International Overdose Awareness Day. Loved ones who died from overdoses were remember as organizers called for investments into housing, services and care.

According to the 2023 Kentucky Drug Overdose Fatality Report, fentanyl is the state’s number one opioid killer. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports more than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, some of whom aren’t aware they’re taking it since it’s commonly mixed into other drugs. Fentanyl is also made into pills that resemble prescription opioids.

“While we are proud that our numbers are going down in certain groups but in the Black and brown and poor marginalized communities those numbers keep going through the roof so we want to safe lives and we want to hold that awareness,” …