Mothers Against Drug Addiction & Deaths

08/23/2026

I’m grateful to KRON 4 for giving us the opportunity to talk about A Light for Every Life and why this night matters so deeply.

Behind every overdose statistic is a name. A face. A family. Someone who was loved, and someone who is still missed.

That is why we gather. Not to remember how they died, but to honor how they lived—and to remind our city that no life should disappear into a number.

On August 30, we will light San Francisco City Hall with a light for every life. 💜

If addiction or overdose has touched your family, please come stand with us. Bring their name. Bring their memory. We will remember them together.

As International Overdose Awareness Day approaches, 'A Light for Every Life' event honors those lost to overdose.

08/22/2026

08/22/2026

Tonight in San Francisco, MADAAD had the privilege of attending the world premiere of “Building Home” — a documentary about author Jared Klickstein’s journey through addiction, homelessness, and recovery.

It asks a question we think about all the time: What does it really take to help someone choose recovery, choose life?

It takes more than a roof. It takes treatment It takes people who refuse to give up on you. Mix that in with Accountability, Community, and the stubborn belief that a human being is still in there, even when addiction has done its very best to convince everyone otherwise.

Dr. Drew Pinsky moderated the conversation afterward, alongside people doing the difficult work of moving people from the streets toward recovery and a life worth living.

And we got to spend the evening with some of our favorite fellow travelers in this work — people who understand that compassion isn’t simply making suffering more comfortable. It’s believing people are capable of something better, and then helping them get there.

MADAAD is grateful to Jared, Beyond Homeless, the Independent Institute, and everyone who helped tell Jared’s story.

Recovery is possible. People can come home. ❤️

08/14/2026

Tonight I had the opportunity to meet with Xavier Becerra.

He may not be my number-one choice for California’s next governor—and I think it’s important to be honest about that. But my work with MADAAD has never been about political parties or personalities. It’s about getting things done.

I will sit down with anyone who is willing to listen, engage seriously, and help advance MADAAD’s mission: saving lives, addressing the devastation of addiction and overdose, and demanding better solutions for the families and communities living with this crisis every day.

We don’t have the luxury of only talking to people we agree with. Real advocacy means showing up, getting in the room, and making sure the people with the power to create change hear from the people most affected by their decisions.

Tonight, I showed up for MADAAD—and I’ll keep showing up wherever there is an opportunity to move our work forward.

07/28/2026

Some losses never stop echoing.

If you’ve loved someone who struggled with addiction, you know there are birthdays that still hurt, songs you can’t hear without crying, and ordinary moments that can still knock the wind out of you. Love doesn’t end when a life does.

On International Overdose Awareness Day, we gather not only to remember those we’ve lost, but to remind one another that they mattered. Their stories mattered. Their lives mattered. They are so much more than the way they died.

This year, MADAAD invites you to join us for A Light for Every Life—an evening of remembrance, hope, compassion, and community.

Whether you are grieving, in recovery, supporting someone you love, working on the front lines, or simply believe every life has immeasurable worth, there is a place for you here.

We’re also looking for volunteers with willing hands and generous hearts. You don’t need special experience—just a desire to help create a beautiful, welcoming evening for families who carry invisible grief. Sometimes healing begins with something as simple as lighting a candle, offering a smile, or helping someone find a seat.

If your heart is nudging you to come—or to serve—we’d love to have you with us.

Please register through our Eventbrite link below, and if you’d like to volunteer, be sure to message me here.

Together, we’ll remember every life.
Together, we’ll carry hope.
Together, we’ll become the light.

🕯️

07/26/2026

MADAAD spent the day at the 13th Annual Stephen Petros Memorial Golf Tournament, handing out Narcan, answering questions, and reminding people that addiction and overdose touch every community.

We shared our stories and gave out Narcan kits-many wanted a kit “just in case.”

“Just in case” is a beautiful phrase.

Seat belts are just in case.
Fire extinguishers are just in case.
AEDs are just in case.

Narcan belongs in that same category. You hope it gathers dust forever. But if the day comes when someone needs it, you’ll never regret having it within reach.

A heartfelt thank you to the Petros family for supporting MADAAD and honoring Stephen’s memory by helping protect other families. Together, we turned a day of golf into a day of awareness, compassion, and potentially lifesaving conversations.

💜
And honestly, that’s a pretty good day’s work.

07/12/2026

Mothers Against Drug Addiction & Deaths (MADAAD) at Walk for Lives San Francisco

07/12/2026

Today MADAAD had the privilege of participating in Walk for Lives in San Francisco. Throughout the day we met families whose lives have been forever changed by overdose.

We also had the opportunity to speak with Senator Scott Wiener about the overdose crisis and the work that still needs to be done. This epidemic will not be solved by slogans.

I was there in honor of my younger brother, Gary, who died from a fentanyl overdose. Grief has a way of changing shape over the years. It softens around the edges, but it never leaves. Sometimes it becomes purpose. Sometimes it becomes a folding table under an orange canopy, handing out information to strangers. Sometimes it becomes a conversation that makes one person feel a little less alone.

That is what MADAAD is about. We cannot bring our loved ones home. But we can honor them by refusing to stop showing up—for families still in the fight, for those struggling with addiction today, and for a future where fewer people have to carry photographs instead of holding hands.

For Gary Joseph. For every life lost. For every life that can still be saved. 🧡🧡🧡

04/30/2026

Today MADAAD toured San Francisco’s new RESET Center at 444 6th Street.

This is the city’s newest attempt to respond to the fentanyl crisis—an alternative to jail or the ER for people arrested for public intoxication, designed to stabilize them, monitor them, and ideally connect them to treatment. It’s a 24/7 facility, overseen by the Sheriff’s Office with health staff onsite, and run by Connections Health Solutions as part of the Mayor’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative.

Walking through it, you can see the intention.

It’s clean. Structured. Calm.
Chairs for observation. Intake rooms. Staff presence.
A space that is trying to say: “You matter enough to be cared for.”

And that matters.

For too long, we’ve had people cycling between sidewalks, ERs, and jail cells with no real interruption in the pattern. This is an attempt—finally—to insert something different.

And we are hopeful.

But we would be failing our community if we didn’t say this clearly:

It is not enough.

This is a pilot program, focused only on SOMA—one of the hardest-hit areas in the entire country. It has limited capacity (around two dozen beds), and it is designed primarily as a short-term sobering and stabilization site—not long-term treatment.

What we saw today is a system that can pause the crisis for a few hours…
but not yet one that can break it.

Because the real gap isn’t just getting people off the street for a night.
It’s what happens next.

* Where do they go when they leave?
* How quickly can they access real treatment?
* What happens to those with severe fentanyl addiction who need more than observation?
* And how do we scale something like this when the need is citywide—not just one neighborhood?

We’ve seen versions of this before. Some helped. Some didn’t.
And the difference always comes down to one thing:

Do people actually get connected to meaningful, ongoing care?

That’s the measure. Not intake. Not appearances. Outcomes.

There’s also a harder truth here that people don’t want to talk about:

This model starts with arrest.

People are brought in involuntarily, held until they are sober, then released—hopefully with a connection to services.

That’s a significant shift in San Francisco’s approach. And whether you agree with it or not, we need to be honest about what it is—and whether it truly leads to recovery, or just another version of the same cycle.

So here’s where we land tonight:

We are encouraged.
We are watching closely.
And we are not lowering the bar.

Because our goal is fewer funerals.
Fewer mothers burying their children.
More people actually making it to recovery—and staying there.

RESET is a start.

But if we stop here, we will fall short of the very people this was built to serve.

— MADAAD