The Middlesex County Coalition for Healthy Communities, in collaboration with Dunellen and South Amboy, will host special Candlelight Vigils and Name Reading Ceremonies in observance of International Overdose Awareness Day on Friday, August 31. It also acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends remembering those who have met with death or permanent injury as a result of drug overdose. Overdose Day spreads the message that the tragedy of overdose death is preventable. Globally, there is an estimated minimum of 190,900 premature deaths caused by drugs (range: 115,900 to 230,100). Opioids account for the majority of drug-related deaths and in most cases such deaths are avoidable. Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths (66%) involved a prescription or illicit opioid. Overdose deaths increased in all categories of drugs examined for men and women, people ages 15 and older, all races and ethnicities, and across all...