United Way of Hastings has announced that a national group that is raising awareness for opioid addiction will be holding a rally at the Capitol in St. Paul on June 4th. According to a UWH press release, the Association for People Against Lethal Drugs (APALD) will conduct a demonstration at the capitol, in conjunction with rallies at 30 other capitols around the nation. The press release goes on to say that opioids accounted for around 75 percent of all overdose deaths during the early months of the COVID pandemic, and around 80 percent of those included synthetic opioids. These synthetic poisonings demonstrate a paradigm shift in comparison to the so-called drug overdoses seen over the years. These deaths are, in fact, not overdoses; they are synthetic poisonings from ingestion of a drug that is fatal, according to APALD. More information is available at APALD.net.