Heroes Of The Addiction Crisis: How Mike Giegerich of End Overdose Is Helping To Battle One of Our Most Serious Epidemics

I wish someone told me that you can truly enjoy your job. I felt like I was spinning my wheels and subscribed to the notion that a job should enable you to pursue your passions, rather than actually be your passion. It turns out End Overdose is my passion!

As a part of our series about “Heroes Of The Addiction Crisis,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Giegerich.

Mike Giegerich is the Director of Communications of the 501(c)3 non-profit End Overdose. End Overdose’s mission is to end drug-related overdose deaths through education, medical intervention, and public awareness. Mike’s role involves comprehensive communication to media, donors, and the national community at large. Mike also facilitates collaborations with musicians to raise awareness for End Overdose’s free education, naloxone, and fentanyl test strips.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit of your backstory?

I’m a former music publicist with seven years of experience representing electronic producers, rappers, and pop vocalists. During my time as a music publicist, I secured coverage in outlets ranging from The New York Times to Rolling Stone, while working on-site at concerts and festivals like Coachella.

I began to experience burnout in music PR in 2023 and knew I needed a change, so I made the transition to leading End Overdose’s communications. After joining, I quickly set forth on spotlighting End Overdose’s lifesaving work. My skills as a publicist have not only translated into securing media placements for End Overdose, but also regularly informing our newsletter subscribers and social media followers of exactly what we’re doing and where their donations are going.

Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work with opioid and drug addiction?

While End Overdose is neutral on the topic of drug use, I’m personally seven years sober and have also seen friends and family impacted by the opioid crisis. Overdoses are the #1 cause of death for adults ages 18–45 in the United States, so I’m passionate about doing everything I can to reverse this trend. The distribution of tools like naloxone and fentanyl test strips by End Overdose is essential work.

Can you explain what brought us to this place? Where did this epidemic come from?

The opioid crisis is directly traceable to institutions like Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family. If medications like OxyContin weren’t deceptively marketed as safe and non-addictive, countless family and friends would still be with us.

Can you describe how your work is making an impact in battling this epidemic?

In 2023 alone, we reached 2,543,340 people at live events and trained 216,301 individuals how to respond to an opioid overdose both online and in-person. That’s an unbelievable amount of people that are now equipped with lifesaving tools, but our goal is to eventually ensure that every American receives these education and resources.

Wow! Without sharing real names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by your initiative?

We toured with Illenium and offered our training and resources at every show. We received a message from someone who was trained on the Illenium tour and used the naloxone we provided them to reverse an overdose and save someone’s life at an unrelated event months later.

Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?

I’m most proud of the fact that we are truly saving lives with our education and resources. Rather than a particular story, I’m most uplifted by every anonymous message we get, letting us know that an individual saved someone’s life with the naloxone we gave them.

Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this problem? Can you give some examples?

First, the community can get trained on how to identify and respond to an overdose. We can reverse the tide of the overdose epidemic with this knowledge.

Second, we need to focus on the urgent problem at hand (overdose deaths happening every day) rather than get lost in arguments about whether or not people should be doing drugs to begin with. You don’t sit around and consider why a fire started when you respond to a burning house — you save the people inside and evaluate the cause once they’re safe.

Third, we need to make clear that overdoses can happen to anyone. Whether it’s someone with substance use disorder or a recreational user trying drugs for the first time, substances laced with fentanyl don’t discriminate.

If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?

I can’t speak to specific legislation, but what I can speak to is the fact that we need naloxone and fentanyl test strips to be readily accessible to every single citizen in the United States. End Overdose is working tirelessly to make that happen.

I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?

Alongside the stories of lives saved, I’m inspired by our team’s hard work to fight the overdose crisis. Whether it’s our Director of Operations driving to Las Vegas to train nightclub staff, our Director of External Affairs managing 30 regional and college chapters, or our founder balancing firefighting with running End Overdose, we’re making a staggering impact with a surprisingly small team.

Do you have hope that one day this leading cause of death can be defeated?

I truly do believe we can defeat this. If every American is equipped with naloxone and trained how to use it, we have a real chance to reverse the tide of the overdose crisis.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

I define leadership as the ability to communicate with people in a language they understand so that they can maximize their talents and grow as a worker. Everyone has a different communication style and skill set that, when nurtured, can lead to personal and professional growth.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

1. I wish someone told me that I could turn my passion for metal music into a sizable part of my career. I grew up interviewing metalcore bands for my Tumblr blog and now I work with them to spread End Overdose’s message.
2. I wish someone told me I was ready for a leadership position. After seven years of working below higher ranking publicists, I had no idea that I could shape the messaging for an entire nonprofit and provide deeply valuable guidance to volunteers and chapter members.
3. I wish someone told me that you can truly enjoy your job. I felt like I was spinning my wheels and subscribed to the notion that a job should enable you to pursue your passions, rather than actually be your passion. It turns out End Overdose is my passion!
4. I wish someone told me that not everyone communicates in the same style. Certain people aren’t overly polite when navigating industry relationships and that’s okay.
5. I wish someone told me that you don’t have to adhere to a pre-written playbook. Want to have metalcore bands support overdose prevention and response? Email their publicists and use your experience to make it happen.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would hope to inspire a movement that prioritizes caring communities through overdose prevention and response. For those who are going to use, test strips can be the deciding factor between life and death. And for the people who do overdose, a community educated in using naloxone can save their life.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite quote comes from the hardcore band The Chariot: “May the history book read of all of our names/Be it blood, be it ink, but at least we were free.” Since I first heard this song as a teenager, I’ve used it as motivation to embrace my passions and aspire to leave an impact on my community through good deeds.

Is there a person in the world or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

It’s a tie between Björk and Josh Scogin from 68/The Chariot. Their music profoundly shaped my life in different ways (and maybe I can get them to record End Overdose PSAs while we’re at it).

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow my personal account @mikegiegerich and the official End Overdose account @end.overdose

This was very meaningful. Thank you so much!