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Opioid Overdose Victims Memorial To Open In Pittsburgh

Keith Srakocic
/
AP
A portion of the 22,000 pills with faces of opioid overdose victims carved into them are on display in a memorial by the National Safety Council at the University of Pittsburgh, Monday, Jan. 29, 2018. Pittsburgh is the first stop on a nationwide tour.

A memorial wall that includes 22,000 pills — each engraved with the face of someone who died of an opioid overdose — has arrived at the University of Pittsburgh.

The National Safety Council will host an unveiling of the memorial during a private event Monday at the William Pitt Student Union. It will be open to public on Tuesday.

The memorial was initially launched in Chicago in November. It's also due to make stops in Atlanta, Ohio and Washington D.C. later this year.

The nonprofit organization calls the wall "Prescribed to Death: A Memorial to the Victims of the Opioid Crisis." A machine carves a new pill on site every 24 minutes to represent the frequency of fatal overdoses.

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