Opinion

Facing facts on overdoses

Today is International Overdose Awareness Day — when people around the world join to recognize loss associated with overdose, and call for policy changes that save lives.

The problem’s getting worse. In 2007 (the latest year for which data is available), more than 27,000 people died from an accidental drug overdose in America — the most ever.

In my years in the music industry, I’ve seen countless talented people become superstars — only to struggle to deal with the sudden fame. Many of my closest friends have struggled with drug addiction. Some have worked through it and survived, but others weren’t as lucky.

I’ve lived through decades of rehabs and relapse, decades of the life-changing grief when someone you love dies from an overdose.

This issue needs to be addressed, but rarely is. People don’t like to talk about overdose because it’s so easy and convenient to blame the victim — witness the chorus of “Take no pity!” that rang out after the death of Amy Winehouse.

We barely know how to have a rational conversation about drugs in this country, so it’s no surprise that we don’t yet understand how to talk about overdose. That’s why Aug. 31 is so important: It’s a chance to just get people talking about it — how we feel about it, how we suffer when it happens, but also how we can prevent it.

Most of these deaths are easily preventable. The solutions are no mystery, and two stand out as no-brainers.

The first is expanding access to naloxone — a cheap, non-narcotic, generic drug proven to reverse the effects of opiate overdose and restore breathing. If we can make it easier to get, we’ll prevent thousands of deaths each year.

The other is passing “911 Good Samaritan” laws. New York last month became the fourth state to allow people to call 911 when witnessing an overdose without fear of prosecution.

We can’t forget the lives that have been lost, nor allow this catastrophe to continue. I’m calling on radio stations to help spread the word on International Overdose Awareness Day by playing music by bands that have lost a member to an overdose, like Sublime, Blind Melon, Hole, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Ramones. Music by legends like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. I hope radio stations will mention Overdose Awareness Day and give out the Web site drugpolicy.org/overdose so listeners can learn more about how to reduce overdose deaths.

Overdose has been in the news a lot lately. We don’t know how Jani Lane of Warrant or Amy Winehouse died; it would be tragic if it turns out we lost either to something so preventable. We can’t bring them back. But we can save a lot of lives by educating people how to prevent, recognize and respond to an overdose — and simply by talking about it.

Jason Flom, the president of Lava Records and former CEO of Atlantic Records, Virgin Records and the Capitol Music Group, serves on the board of directors of the Drug Policy Alliance.