Relatives of people who died from drugs overdoses have mounted a protest on the steps of Stormont.
They laid out 212 pairs of shoes on the steps of Parliament Buildings, one to signify every life lost to drugs in a year, according to the most recent figures.
The figures have doubled in a decade and families say it is an underestimation of the real death toll.
Most of those who died had taken cocaine, heroin and morphine.
The rally was calling for improved services for people coping with addiction and homelessness.
Organiser Paul McCusker, an independent councillor on Belfast City Council, said they decided to take their protest to a mothballed Stormont.
He said people were dying due to a lack of services and legislation to help those in need.
"People are dying because we have no Executive and that's the reality," he said.
"Events like this are very important because it remembers those who've died but we also need to keep the pressure on for better services."
He said a lack of treatment beds and medical practitioners who could assist people both with their addiction and their mental help, meant that people in Northern Ireland often had to travel either across the border or to Britain for help.
People who attended observed a minute's silence before listening to speakers, including those who lost relatives to drugs.
A total of 60 Belfast councillors were invited to the event. Only one, Alliance's Michael Long, attended.
Of the 90 MLAs invited only Alliance leader Naomi Long, party colleague Danny Donnelly and People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll turned up.
Those who gathered applauded as campaigners said they would happily turn Stormont into a diagnostic centre and use the MLAs wages to run it.
Mr Carroll, who sponsored the event, praised the charities who worked with drug addicts but said the burden of service provision should properly fall on the state.
