At the front of the rally, a middle-aged woman in a pink fur coat held a cardboard tombstone on which she'd written a name: Jeff Dugan. She'd also pasted two photographs on it: In one, Dugan is wearing a purple button-down shirt, smiling beatifically in front of a garden. In the other, he stands in a blonde-wood kitchen over a plate of food. The epitaph reads, "8-5-14. Forever 28. Our son, our brother, our chef."
Alexis Pleus-Dugan's mother and founder of Truth Pharm, a Binghamton-based harm reduction group-shouted, "If my son had a safe place to use, he might not have died alone in a bathroom!"
In April, 56 New York lawmakers-nine Republicans and four dozen Democrats- signed a letter sent to Governor Kathy Hochul, calling for her to declare a public health emergency over the overdose crisis. This, they argued, would allow her to waive copays for addiction treatment, increase Medicaid subsidies for treatment providers, and "enhance overdose prevention methods."
Back in March, more than 100 harm-reduction advocates (including drug users themselves), lawmakers, healthcare workers, and family members of drug users rallied at the State Capitol to demand that Hochul expand overdose prevention centers, known as OPCs, in New York State.
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