.jpg "Juli E. Shamash photo")
President
Drug Awareness Foundation
LA, CA
Juli Shamash is a former elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom. After tragically losing her 19-year-old son Tyler to fentanyl in October 2018, Juli became an advocate in an effort to prevent overdoses and drug poisonings. Juli and her family have formed the Drug Awareness Foundation. They give fentanyl awareness presentations to schools, parent and professional groups, as well as getting middle, high schools and universities to add lessons about fentanyl poisoned drugs to their curriculums and orientations. They work on distributing fentanyl testing strips and Narcan in the community, get local landmarks such as Los Angeles City Hall, Staples Center and LAX to light up purple for Overdose Awareness Day, and fund billboards and bus ads to warn the public about fentanyl poisoned drugs. Juli is one of the driving forces behind the legislation, SB864, Tyler’s Law, which requires every hospital in California to test for fentanyl whenever they order a standard five-panel urine drug test. On August 22nd, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB864, Tyler’s Law and it will go into effect on January 1, 2023.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
4:15 PM – 5:30 PM