Los Angeles goes purple to help end drug overdoses

LOS ANGELES - The City Hall buildings of Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the LAX pylons will turn purple in honor of World Overdose Awareness Day.

The global campaign is the largest of its kind aimed at ending overdose deaths and remembering those who lost their lives. 

"This day just reminds people that those who we’ve lost from addiction and overdose are more than that. They were wonderful people, they had interests," said Juli Shamash, who co-founded the Drug Awareness Foundation.

Shamash lost her son Tyler to a fentanyl overdose in 2018. 

"I feel the more we put it out there in the open, the less stigma there will be and deaths will be prevented," she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accidental overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50. 

More than 105,000 American lives were lost to drug overdose in 2022.

For more information on Overdose Awareness Day, visit overdoseday.com.

For more information on how to talk to your children about addiction you can visit drugawarenessfoundation.org.