Hoosiers remember 2,755 lives lost to drug overdoses in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Overdose Lifeline, an Indiana nonprofit helping people battle substance abuse, honored the lives of 2,755 Hoosiers who died in 2021 from a drug overdose.

Douglas Hunsinger, Indiana government’s executive director for drug prevention and treatment, said, “These are our friends, our neighbors and our loved ones.”

Hunsinger and others spoke Sunday at an event at the Indiana State Museum marking Overdose Awareness Day, which is Wednesday.

Justin Phillips, executive director of Overdose Lifeline, described what the event was about: “Having people come the state museum to stand up and say, ‘I lost my loved one, but they still matter.’”

An estimated 285 people die per day in the United States from drug overdoses. Many of those drugs are laced with fentanyl.

Phillips said, “The drug cartel, the drug dealers are putting fentanyl in everything. They are stamping pills as a Xanax and it has fentanyl. People are using drugs they are not expecting to overdose from.”

He urged people who buy drugs off the streets to use test strips to detect the presence of fentanyl.

For those who want a way out, there is help. In 2018, the state expanded Medicaid to those who are battling addiction, and Indiana will receive $507 million over 18 years from the national opioid settlement. Hunsinger said, “This is the chance at all levels of our community to make the necessary investments, guided by evidence to ensure that we are keeping people alive, moving them into treatment and sustaining their recovery.”

All this week, Monument Circle will be illuminated to honor those people who lost their battles with drug addiction.