May 7th is recognized as National Fentanyl Awareness Day.
“Which is kind of a newer one on the calendar because of the destruction that fentanyl has done to the communities,” said Peter Loehner, a Case Manager at Personal Solutions Inc.
The CDC reports over 150 people die every single day from an fentanyl overdose. Loehner says in 2023 there were, “something like twenty-one overdoses in the Bedford area which doesn’t sound like a lot, but you know those are twenty-one lives and those are very important ones, Many go unreported.”
Loehner tells 6 News they work to curb the opioid epidemic within Personal Solutions Inc. everyday.
“What we been doing more and more lately is we been going out into the community and having community discussions,” Loehner said. “We invite the community; we have a panel of experts, and we have the community ask questions and the experts educate the community.”
Loehner believes declaring May 7th as National Fentanyl Awareness Day is a great thing!
“I think it goes further along to realize that people are, the stigma is lessening, and people are getting smarter," said Loehner. "And I think they’re getting smarter because it’s hitting individual families now. Families that said, this will never, you know were not drug addicts, we don’t sleep under bridges, were not poor you know, were middle income, were upper middle income, were wealthy, but we have relatives that are drug addicts or suffering from some substance abuse and its now hitting everybody.”
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