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The campaign focuses on the deaths of two local teenagers — Amelia Sorich and Zachary Martinez — who died earlier this year after overdosing. The teens' faces are pictured on billboards across the city.

After Sorich and Martinez died, the people they were with took their bodies and dumped them in the foothills in an attempt to cover up their involvement. The campaign is part of an effort by Anderson to focus on harm reduction in addition to blanket prevention.

"There are others who have died because their friends panicked and they were probably worried about their own legal liability and didn't call 911," Anderson said. "We're trying to get people to process now what their decision will be if somebody is exhibiting signs of a drug overdose."

Anderson's drug reforms — most notably his elimination of the D.A.R.E program from Salt Lake City schools — earned him top honors last weekend at the conference of the Drug Policy Alliance in California.

Anderson received the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform for being the "most outspoken and effective local elected official" in the nation on drug policy.

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Contributing: Erin Stewart.

E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com