MILWAUKEE — Tahira Malik said for 15 years, opioid addiction controlled her life.
“It started with a car accident after I had my first daughter,” said Malik. “The doctor kept prescribing prescription pain pills. Perquisites, methadone and then I became addicted to the Xanax.”
She found sobriety and turned her life around, but still continued to lose those around her to drug overdose.
So she turned her pain into purpose and opened up a sober living home for women and children with her sister called Samad’s House in Milwaukee.
“We have serviced over 86 women,” said Malik. “We have had — out of the 86 women — 65 who have moved into their own home and had been reunited with their children.”
Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Wisconsin likely had around 1,800 people overdose and die statewide in 2023.
Samad’s House hosted its 4th annual Black Balloon Day, a national event remembering those who lost their lives to drug overdose.
“It’s so important to bring light to what’s going on in the opioid crisis, so we can bring viable solutions to save lives,” said Malik.
That’s where the “Better Ways to Cope,” a community centered mental health and substance misuse prevention, campaign comes in.
Jeremy Triblett with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services has helped lead the campaign. In 2023, over 550 people died from drug overdose in Milwaukee County.
“We’ve had folks make commercials,” said Triblett. “We’ve had folks make cartoons for young people. We’ve seen people going biking, treadmilling. People have done art. Folks have done hip-hop, creative rap videos. We’ve even seen folks disseminate nasal Narcan.”
Both Triblett and Malik said it’s a community effort to stop the opioid crisis.
“We have the power to make a change in our community,” said Malik. “We can do it person by person, community by community and, hopefully, nation by nation.”
Malik said she is proud of her accomplishments to get sober and help those who need help, just as she did. She said she hopes she is part of the solution to saving lives in the future.