Sherman Medical Center offers nasal kits, overdose-response training for Aug. 31 awareness day
A pharmacist at the Grayson County hospital distributed nasal kits and showed attendees how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, according to the campaign's event directory.
Sherman Medical Center organized a Narcan demonstration on Aug. 31, 2026, where a hospital pharmacist gave out nasal kits and taught attendees how to tell when someone is overdosing on opioids and what to do about it, according to the International Overdose Awareness Day event directory. The hospital is in Grayson County, which belongs to the same Texoma region as Cooke County.
The directory lists the hospital team as the contact and places the demonstration at the medical center on North Highland Avenue. On its own website, the hospital gives its address as 500 N. Highland and says it serves families across North Texas and southern Oklahoma.
Texas State Library records name Sherman as the Grayson County seat, which puts the event outside Cooke County and its seat of Gainesville. The Texoma Council of Governments counts Cooke, Grayson and Fannin counties as its Texoma region.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that drug-poisoning deaths in Texas rose 68% between 2019 and 2024, despite an 8.9% decline from 2023 to 2024.
Rise in Texas drug-poisoning deaths, 2019 to 2024
The increase held despite an 8.9% decline from 2023 to 2024.
Nationally, final figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the age-adjusted overdose death rate fell by about a quarter from 2023 to 2024. Provisional CDC estimates released in May 2026 put 2025 deaths nearly 14% below the comparable provisional estimate for 2024, though the agency says those numbers are incomplete and subject to revision.
The national overdose death rate fell sharply in 2024
The chart loads when visible. All values are in the table.
CDC National Center for Health Statistics, NCHS Data Brief No. 549
The steepest drop
View as a table
| Year | Deaths per 100,000 people (age-adjusted) |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.6 deaths per 100,000 |
| 2023 | 31.3 deaths per 100,000 |
| 2024 | 23.1 deaths per 100,000 |
A separate CDC review of 2024 overdose deaths in 43 participating jurisdictions found at least one potential chance to intervene in about two of every three cases. The agency's figures cover those jurisdictions and say nothing specific about Sherman.
The medication taught in Sherman has been easier to buy for several years. The Food and Drug Administration approved 4-milligram Narcan nasal spray for sale without a prescription on March 29, 2023. The agency had first approved the spray as a prescription drug in 2015.
The Sherman listing refers to the date as National Overdose Awareness Day. The campaign that coordinates it goes by International Overdose Awareness Day and holds it every Aug. 31. Campaign records trace the observance to Melbourne, Australia, in 2001 and say Penington Institute has led it since 2012.
Other North Texas communities hold similar gatherings. Reacting to Opioid Overdose says it has held a North Texas Overdose Awareness Day event in Denton since 2018, and the group offers free naloxone through its event page. The campaign's 2024 partner report says the Denton event drew more than 500 attendees and over 60 resource providers, with free naloxone and training sessions. The University of North Texas reported that its 2025 event included more than 40 organizations and provided free Narcan kits, overdose-response instructions and treatment-navigation resources.
For people who want naloxone outside an awareness event, the state health department maintains a statewide locator that helps individuals and organizations find free or reduced-cost naloxone.
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