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Conn. Towns Mark Overdose Awareness Day

Wednesday was International Overdose Awareness Day, and Wednesday evening several vigils were held around Connecticut for drug overdose victims. More than 700 people in Connecticut died of drug overdoses in 2015, most from opioids like heroin or painkillers.

Abigail Rasmussen has been in recovery from heroin addiction for nearly three years. She says if you look out from the picturesque New Milford town green, you wouldn’t imagine that eight people in the town died of overdoses in 2015.

“You look at this town and it’s beautiful, you know? It’s not like it’s rundown or overcrowded. It’s a beautiful town.”

Rasmussen and her mother spoke at a candlelight vigil on the green. She said she knows too many people who’ve overdosed. Some were saved by EMTs using naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of a drug overdose. But some died.

“It’s so sad. And it really just goes to show that it doesn’t matter where, it doesn’t matter when, it doesn’t matter who. Addiction can get anyone.”

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced on Wednesday that the state has distributed more than 9,000 kits containing naloxone to people around the state.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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