Vigil held for International Overdose Awareness Day

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Community members gathered Wednesday to call for immediate action from the state government to end overdoses.

Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day. The goal of the vigil held at the Liberty Pole in downtown Rochester was to urge Gov. Hochul to use executive action to put an end to the crisis in New York State.

We spoke to a County Legislator Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman. She’s the niece of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman who passed away from an overdose in 2014. 

“I’m hoping to see a safe injection site in Monroe County,” Delvecchio Hoffman said. “I know to people sometimes that sounds like a new idea but really if my uncle had been using in a safe injection site then he would still be here and he would have the chance to get sober again. So we would like to see folks be able to struggle in a way that is humane until they’re ready to walk out of that struggle.”

Organizers say a New Yorker dies every 90 minutes from a preventable overdose.