Saud Anwar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe O’Leary | Joe.OLeary@cga.ct.gov | 508-479-4969

MEDIA ADVISORY – TUESDAY 11:30 AM HALL OF FLAGS – BIDEN ADMIN DRUG CONTROL DIRECTOR, ADVOCATES, LEGISLATORS TO FIGHT FOR FURTHER HARM REDUCTION INVESTMENT TO FIGHT OPIOID CRISIS

Where: State Capitol, Hall of Flags
When: Tuesday, April 14, 11:30 a.m.
Who: Dr. Rahul Gupta, former National Drug Control Policy director under the Biden Administration, whose focus on harm reduction reduced national overdose rates
Experts including Professor Scott Burris, director of Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research; Professor Robert Heimer, professor of epidemiology and pharmacology at Yale Institute for Global Health; and Liz Evans of Liberation Programs, a harm reduction expert
Additional advocates including Dita Bhargawa, board member of Shatterproof and Liberation Program, and Diane Santos, who both lost children to overdoses; and Cameron Breen, a street outreach case manager and drug checking technician
Legislators led by Public Health Chairs Senator Saud Anwar and Representative Cristin McCarthy Vahey, joined by additional legislators including State Representative Josh Elliott

On Tuesday, as Connecticut sees overdose deaths decline but more than two residents per day still die from overdose, advocates, legislators and experts will join Dr. Rahul Gupta, former National Drug Control Policy director to call for Connecticut to further its investments in harm reduction at an inflection point in the opioid crisis. With Connecticut continuing to pursue new strategies to battle the opioid crisis, now is the time for the state to commit further toward ending the tragedies that impact families, friends and loved ones every day.