One man's effort to beat drug addiction

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – International Overdose Awareness Day is later this month, but a local recovery center started August with an event as part of its efforts to save lives.

The number of fatal overdoses in central Ohio has decreased over the past few years, according to the five-year trend report from the Franklin County Coroner's Office. Numbers from the coroner's office showed 258 fatal overdoses in the county through the first two quarters of this year, 130 lower than the same period last year.

It's a personal issue for Casey Walker.

“I probably know of five to 10 people in my personal life that have overdosed," he said. "Family, friends."

He has also battled drug addiction. He said it started with pain pills, which led to heroin. He first stepped foot in Maryhaven, an addiction treatment center, in 2012. Maryhaven helped him turn his life around and he's been sober since.

“It was like just another thing that was, like, I've got to make sure I stay on the right track," he said.

Maryhaven recently held its second annual Path to Hope event. Narcan, fentanyl test strips and other community resources were available. There was also time for people to share their stories of overcoming addiction and time to remember lives lost.

"There’s been awareness campaigns, there’s been some policy decisions both at the local, state, and federal level that have positively impacted these numbers, but there's more that can be done and Maryhaven wants to continue to have these types of events, to have these types of conversations to make sure we do as much as we can to get that number down to zero," Boomer Schmidt, Maryhaven's chief advancement officer, said.

Walker hopes the month is a reminder for people that help is available.

“It gets better," he said. "There’s hard, it’s going to be hard, but you just have to focus on continuously trying to improve yourself and remembering that it’s always going to get better. Just try to stay positive and keep the final goal in sight.”