Beaches Memorial Walk honors the lives lost to drug overdose in Jacksonville on Saturday

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thousands of Floridians lose their life each and every year to drug overdose. Margo Weisblat’s brother was one of those thousands. Her brother Nathan died of a heroin and fentanyl overdose back in February of 2020.

“He was two years older than me, we were very close growing up, he got into drugs when he was about 17 years old,” Margo recounted for Action News Jax. “This issue does hit very close to home for me, and it affects not only me but families across the First Coast.”

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That’s why Margo started the Beaches Memorial Walk, cosponsored this year by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The ultimate goal of the walk is so that people like herself, and like Michele Holbrook and Julie Albachiaro who both lost children to opioid overdose, can share their stories and raise awareness on a lifesaving mission.

“We have to train our kids early in order to be able to stop this disease,” Holbrook told Action News Jax at Saturday’s walk.

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While Mike McCormick with Florida Poison Control told Action News Jax at the walk that Florida is seeing real progress in fighting drug overdoses, there’s still much work to be done, as each and every life lost is one too many.

“For the first time, we’re seeing opioid overdoses start to go down. It’s the first time since 2016,” said McCormick. “And that’s exciting, but at the same time we’re cautiously optimistic because it’s still too many: 20 people a day in the state of Florida [die from it].”

Vic Micolucci with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told Action News the department will soon now be doubling its drug overdose squad, to continue to catch those peddling drugs into the streets here at home.

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