Reading Holds Overdose Awareness Day Event: ‘The pain does not go unnoticed'

READING, MA — Reading community members gathered on the Town Common on Wednesday afternoon for a brief event marking this year’s International Drug Overdose Awareness Day.

The event featured comments from a handful of town officials around a display of roughly 300 purple flags arranged in the shape of a ribbon to symbolize drug overdose awareness and the lives lost to addiction.

“These people who are overdosing are our sons, daughters, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters,” Reading Police Chief David Clark said. “They are loved and they are missed.”

“The pain does not go unnoticed,” he continued.

There were at least 2,324 deaths due to opioid overdoses across Massachusetts in 2021, according to preliminary state data. That was an increase over 2020, which saw 2,086 deaths.

Reading saw 18 overdose deaths between 2017 and 2021, with three last year, according to the same state data.

As Reading gathered on Wednesday, similar events and memorials were also set to take place elsewhere in the state and the country.

This is as experts note a spike in overdose deaths and related complications from drug misuse in recent years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Statistics and anecdotal evidence for this year show that the situation is growing ever more exacerbated,” Reading Coalition for Prevention & Support Director Erica McNamara said on Wednesday, citing supply chain disruptions that have made drug supplies even more dangerous.

The pandemic has also decreased access to treatment, among other things, according to multiple reports and experts.

Wednesday's event was hosted by the Reading Police, the Reading Coalition for Prevention & Support and the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition.

The Reading Coalition traces its history back to 2005, evolving over the years alongside town efforts to limit drug misuse in Reading.

Speaking on Wednesday, McNamara noted upcoming work to honor those who have died due to addiction and drug misuse while also raising awareness about such issues. Plans include a story project dubbed “A Walk to Remember.”

Ongoing, that project asks community members in Malden, Medford, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester who have lost a loved one due to addiction to fill out a survey telling their loved one's story.

Stories will then be displayed as part of an event on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Town Common.

The Walk to Remember event will include additional speakers, resources and a candlelight vigil.

In the meantime, the Reading Police Department is also circulating special Reading Coalition patches to promote the issues that the coalition focuses on, ranging from bullying prevention and awareness, to addiction.

Police will be wearing the patches through September.

Anyone else interested in obtaining one of the Police Department's coalition patches can reach out to Community Service Officer Kristen O'Shaughnessy by email at koshaughnessy@ci.reading.ma.us or by phone at (781) 942-6761 with proof of a donation to a charity working on mental health awareness, bullying prevention awareness, recovery awareness, substance misuse awareness or suicide prevention awareness.