Sam Szoyka, youth program coordinator with Partnership Carson City, builds a display to raise awareness about opioid addiction in Carson City on Wednesday. The 408 prescription bottles, each covered with a statistic about opioid addiction, represent the number of Nevadans who died from an opioid overdose in 2016. The piece can be viewed at Carson and Musser Streets in front of the Capitol.
A new display in front of the state Capitol is designed to bring awareness to the opioid crisis across Nevada and the nation.
“Friday is International Overdose Awareness Day,” explained Samantha Szoyka, the youth program coordinator for Partnership Carson City. “We wanted to educate the community about this crucial issue. We want to teach people how to be smart when taking opioids and how to avoid overdose.”
Szoyka erected the Opioid Memorial Wall on Wednesday. It’s made up of of two 8-by-4-foot pieces of plywood with empty pill bottles attached.
“Each of the 408 pill bottles represent one of the deaths from opioid overdose in Nevada in 2016,” Szoyka said. “It will be on the front lawn of the Capitol, on the corner of Carson and Musser streets.”
Each of the pill bottles features a statistic or quote to raise awareness of the opioid epidemic.
Some facts include: “In 2016, more than 42,000 people in America died of an opioid overdose,” and “275 million people worldwide take opioids.”
Quotes include, “Judgement can be a death sentence,” and “Overdose death is preventable.”
Learn more at pcccarson.org.