Walk For Lives: San Francisco raises awareness of fentanyl with thousands across country in annual walk

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Thousands of people across the country joined together Saturday to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.

At San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood was a march in remembrance and with a message.

Hundreds of marches like this happened across the country Saturday in the annual “Walk For Lives.” It was organized locally by nonprofit Micah’s Hugs, founded by Micah Sawyer, who lost his son, Micah Jr., to a fentanyl overdose in 2019.

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“This is a day to bring awareness and attention to the fentanyl crisis happening all across the country and try to, you know, give some information to our communities around here and bring families together, that are mourning to have an outlet,” Sawyer said.

And while nationwide drug overdose deaths took a significant dip in 2024, these loved ones say the work is far from over, with still tens of thousands of people dying.

“I think it’s important that we don’t lose that momentum and that we keep it going. So that we continue to have a slow down, and we don’t have our numbers come back up again,” Sawyer said.