Take action, prevent overdose deaths

Since 2016 I have been working on helping prevent drug overdose by teaching people how to test the drugs they're using and by training in opioid overdose Reversal. Drug use in the US is a reality, it's not something that's going to stop. While testing won't stop drug use it can prevent drug overdose, in turn preventing someone from dying. I have used a substantial amount of my own money. Unfortunately I cannot continue at this pace because doing what I do alone, is a full time job, but although I cannot continue financially at the pace I'm going, the work needs to be done, in order to prevent as many deaths as possible. That is why I am doing this go fund me. I have gone from NJ, to NYC, to DC, to Philly, to Colorado, to Baltimore, Ireland, Paris and a few other places in between. I travel, test, teach to test, provide test strips, and education. This WILL NOT stop this opioid crisis but it will save some lives. In my career I have reversed a fairly large number of Overdoses and trained thousands more how to reverse an overdose, out of those I've trained, hundreds more have reversed Overdoses. We need to step in and help where we can. This is something that is affecting everyone from every ethnicity, religion, and class. It doesn't care if you're rich or poor, if you're black or white, if you're Catholic or Jewish. We need to, if not stop, then at the very least slow down these deaths until something better comes along. The test strips cost me $1 a piece, so as you can well imagine, going thru a box of 100 is very easy. The money I'm asking for is to continue to buy the strips and for travel to all the places I go to help folks out. If you've lost a loved one, or know someone who has, then you know the devastation these Overdoses are causing in people's lives. Help me help others stay alive. You can't make positive changes in your lives if you Overdose and die. Give those folks that chance at making the changes they need, by helping them stay alive.

** The First Count of Fentanyl Deaths in 2016:  Up 540% in Three Year's  By JOSH KATZ  SEPT. 2, 2017 The first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths in 2016 shows overdose deaths growing even faster than previously thought. Drug overdoses killed roughly 64,000 people in the United States last year, according to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to cover all of 2016. It’s a staggering rise of more than 22 percent over the 52,404 drug deaths recorded the previous year — and even higher than The New York Times’s estimate in June, which was based on earlier preliminary data. Drug overdoses are expected to remain the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, as synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl and its analogues — continue to push the death count higher. Drug deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 2015 to 2016, accompanied by an upturn in deaths involving cocaine and methamphetamine. Together they add up to an epidemic of drug overdoses that is killing people at a faster rate than the H.I.V. epidemic at its peak. ~NY Times