August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day.
Huron Perth Public Health is using the day to raise awareness of substance abuse and decrease the stigma of drug overdose.
The health unit says an overdose can occur after opioid use as they act as a depressant on the body.
Meaning bodily responses are slowed, sometimes to the point of stopping completely.
Some signs and symptoms of an overdose include a person who has slow or erratic breathing, blue tinged fingernails, is unresponsive or unconscious.
Health workers encourage people who use opioids to not do so alone and to have Naloxone on hand, just in case.
Naloxone can temporarily reverse an overdose but only works properly if 9-1-1 is called immediately.
