New Specialty License Plates to Promote Overdose Awareness in Massachusetts
Vehicles on roads across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be soon spreading the message of overdose awareness. The Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) will unveil new specialty license plates focused on promoting awareness of opioid-related overdoses. These license plates are the result of nearly four years of efforts by Marlborough resident Cheryl Juaire.
Through her nonprofit Team Sharing, Juaire secured enough commitment from motorists willing to pay $40 up front to receive the specialty overdose awareness license plates. The RMV is now making the plates available to qualified entities, who will be responsible for registering the plates after meeting several prerequisities.
According to a report by the Cape Cod Times, groups need to collect 750 applications for the plates before the manufacturing begins. At that point, a sponsoring organization must post a $100,000 bond, which the state releases after it issues 3,000 plates within five years.
For nearly three-plus years following the death of her son Sean Merrill, Juaire attended 5Ks, conferences, and public events on behalf of Team Sharing to collect applications for the license plates. Despite setbacks during that time, Juaire persevered, securing a $10,000 donation in 2024 to move her dream forward.
For Juaire, who lost two sons to drug overdoses, achieving this milestone is personal.
“I thought because of the world I live in — the grief world, the recovery world, the addiction world, all the people that I know — I thought this is just going to be the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and I found out that that’s not true. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Juaire said in an interview with the Cape Cod Times.
According to a Statehouse News Service report, over 20,000 Bay State residents have died of opioid-related overdoses since 2014. Deaths from overdoses have exceeded 2,000 people per year for the eighth year in a row.
“I am hoping that these plates will start a conversation,” Juaire said.
