Tulsa proclaims Sept. 21 Opioid Awareness Day; county and harm-reduction providers urge carrying naloxone

The mayor of the City of Tulsa and the Tulsa City Council on Sept. 21, 2025 issued a proclamation recognizing Sept. 21 as Opioid Awareness Day and called on residents to learn the signs of overdose, carry naloxone and support evidence-based treatment and long-term recovery.

The proclamation, read into the record by a city official, said Tulsa and the surrounding area continue to be "profoundly affected by unintentional drug overdoses" and cited a local increase in fentanyl-involved deaths described in the text as "rising nearly 15-fold in recent years." It noted the Tulsa Fire Department's Overdose Response Team (ORT) has helped nearly 500 people and described the department's ART 2 program as providing harm-reduction supplies and pathways to care for people experiencing homelessness.

Why it matters: City and county officials and local treatment and harm-reduction providers said the proclamation highlights the growing local overdose crisis and supports continuing outreach, overdose reversal efforts and stigma reduction that providers say are needed to link people to care.

Robert Harmon, representing Tulsa County government, thanked the city for the proclamation and praised local providers. "The things you do for the people of this city, in this county are just I can't speak enough about it. You change lives every day," Harmon said.

Hannah, introduced as an associate director of a local harm-reduction program, described growing public discussion of overdose prevention since returning to Tulsa in 2018 and said she was proud of recent collaborative efforts. "When I moved back to Tulsa in 2018, we weren't having a lot of these conversations, but people were still dying from preventable overdoses," Hannah said. "I could cry because of, like, the recognition and the teamwork that I've seen from the city."

The proclamation urged Tulsans to "challenge stigma, learn the signs of overdose, carry naloxone, and support evidence-based treatment and long-term recovery." The document also thanked county and state partners and local providers, and listed participating partners including the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, Tulsa County, the Tulsa Fire Department, school and mental-health partners, and local substance-use treatment organizations.

Officials at the event underscored that the proclamation is symbolic but intended to promote concrete steps: expand distribution of naloxone, continue fire-department outreach, and encourage residents to support treatment and recovery services. No formal legislation or new funding was proposed or adopted during the presentation.

The city took photographs with providers and partners following the proclamation and encouraged community members to use the 24/7 local resources referenced in the proclamation for immediate help.