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Tangipahoa Parish display holds a spot for each resident lost to drugs this year
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AMITE CITY - Mo's Movement, a local organization, presented a display for The Empty Chair Project in front of the Tangipahoa Courthouse, showing the impact drug overdose can leave.
The Empty Chair Project is a nationwide movement. The displays use chairs to represent the lives lost in a community by drugs. In front of the Tangipahoa Courthouse, 39 chairs sit empty — representing the 39 lives lost to drugs within the parish this year.
Angela Shockley is the founder of Mo's Movement, naming the group after her daughter Morgan, nicknamed "Mo," who died from drug poisoning last year. Shockley does not refer to Morgan's death as an overdose, instead, she intentionally uses the phrase drug poisoning.
“There's an empty chair at our table,” Shockley said. “It is a poisoning. For example, with my daughter, hers was fentanyl toxicity. She wasn’t prescribed fentanyl. She didn’t accidentally take too much fentanyl. We’ve gone from accidental overdose now to drug poisoning.”
Shockley said Morgan had been in recovery, but relapsed and took a substance she did not know was laced with fentanyl.
“She was normal, she was a college cheerleader. And she was a very compassionate person. And she wanted to help people,” Shockley said.
Shockley founded Mo's Movement in Morgan's honor and said the organization spreads awareness about the dangers of drugs, provides substance abuse resources and serves as an advocate for those who died from overdose.
“Pushing for investigations that every drug poisoning warrants a criminal investigation. If we don’t investigate, we can not incarcerate. And we can’t get the drug dealers off the streets,” Shockley said.
Tangipahoa Sheriff Gerald Sticker said he restarted the narcotics division when he took office and the department is working to take out high-level dealers.
“It takes time, it takes money, it takes resources, but the alternative is if we don’t do anything, these deaths will continue,” Sticker said.
He said the office wants to punish drug distributors to the fullest extent of the law. In August, Hammond Police arrested and charged a man distributing drugs with second-degree murder for an overdose death.
Sticker said these charges will become more common.
“If it’s drug related, whether it’s through text messages, personal witnesses, whatever means necessary, that we track down that individual that dealt that lethal dose. We’re going to put them in jail for homicide, for second-degree murder,” Sticker said.
The Empty Chair Project display involved 39 chairs but Sticker said he expected at least six more drug-related deaths before the year ends. The Tangipahoa Coroner's Office confirmed there have been at least 36 overdose deaths since the start of the year, 31 of those involving fentanyl and that the office is still waiting for confirmation for several cases.
On Friday, there will be special chairs at the display, each paying tribute to a person who died from an overdose.
“The visual shows that we still have a problem, we’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go," Shockley said.
The custom chairs are set to be up Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Shockley said there would also be substance abuse resources near the display. The entire display will be taken down Sunday.
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