Overdose Awareness Candlelight Vigil to Remember Loved Ones

The Sioux Falls Health Department announced that there will be an event to raise awareness and remember loved ones lost to a drug overdose.

The Overdose Awareness Candlelight Vigil will take place on Friday, August 30 from 7:30 to 9:00 pm on the steps of Sioux Falls City Hall at 224 West Ninth Street.

The  Health Department says that 192 people die every day in the United States from a drug overdose. From January 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, there have been 38 fatalities from a drug overdose in Minnehaha County alone in South Dakota.

Statewide drug deaths have almost doubled in the state. In 2007 South Dakota averaged 4.8 drug deaths per 100,000 people. In 2018 it was 8 drug deaths per 100,000 people. That was the second-highest rate in the country.