While trying to reduce the stigma that comes with drug overdoses and drug- related death, advocates are urging sympathy toward those who are dealing with drug addiction.

The Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center hosted a ceremony at the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon commemorating International Overdose Awareness Day, which began in Australia in 2001.

During the ceremony, HHHRC Tobacco Treatment Specialist Donita Garcia recounted her own experiences of drug use. Garcia told dozens at the Capitol that she had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused since she was 5 years old, had been suicidal and, at one point, was homeless in Nanakuli.

“I didn’t want to be awake during the weekend, so I started taking drugs to not be present,” she said. “I had to escape reality somehow, and that was the only way I knew how.”

Garcia said a turning point came when she was hospitalized and a doctor looked at her with “such disgust” because “another addict was trying to kill herself,” so she sought help and said the kindness of a social worker kept her alive.

She started college at 56 years old and earned three degrees before working with HHHRC.

Garcia said what she needed and what many others struggling with homelessness and drug abuse need is help.

“Don’t look down on the drug addicts, don’t look down on the homeless — help them. They need so much help,” she said. “We didn’t grow up thinking this is where our life is going to end. We grew up wanting the same thing everyone else wants.”

Deaths by drug overdose in Hawaii have actually dropped by 6.8% between March 2021 and 2022 — from 279 to 260 reported cases — according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, while they jumped by 6.6% nationwide.

But drug use continues to be a problem Hawaii is trying to solve. HHHRC said that it has distributed 8,138 doses of naloxone, a life- saving medication used to reverse an opioid overdose, throughout the state from January to July. The Honolulu Fire Department in October will train its 1,100 uniformed personnel to use naloxone, and implementation is anticipated in November.

For students, the use of opioids, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and steroids was higher among transgender and gender minority students compared to others, the 2019-2020 Student Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Use Survey found.

The survey, published by the University of Hawaii Department of Psychiatry and John A. Burns School of Medicine, assessed drug use in students in grades 8, 10 and 12 in Hawaii.

HHHRC’s Dr. Christina Wang, like Garcia, placed emphasis on reducing any stigma associated with drug use as a way to encourage those with substance abuse issues — which she said can affect anyone — to seek help.

“Everyone needs to feel that they can have nonjudgmental care,” Wang said. “We want everyone who feels that they are suffering to know that there are people out there who are here to listen and to help.”

There is ongoing collaboration between county, state and federal level agencies to provide such care.

John Valera, acting administrator of the state Department of Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, said the division is teaching first responders how to administer naloxone to prevent overdoses.

The federal State Opioid Response Grants, meant to address opioid overdoses, are also helping increase access to naloxone and other treatments for patients in Hawaii, Valera said.