He died in a San Francisco jail. His family wrote a play about it.

"His parents filed a lawsuit against the jail staff who had been responsible for his care. His father is working to pass Theris' Law, legislation that would empower people to put family members into emergency treatment. And Coats' father and uncle in recent months created a nonprofit, Brothers Against Drug Deaths, to advocate for mental health and addiction support particularly within Black and other underserved communities."

"The idea arose when Coats' father, Theris Coats Sr., was discussing with Richard Beal - his brother-in-law and the director of recovery services at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic - about the convoluted ins and outs of the system that the family navigated trying to get help for Coats. Wanting to visualize the issue, Coats Sr. went to his two playwright nieces, Kamika Hebbert and Roz Coats, and asked them for help."

""Where we come from as writers, we have a family history of people who have dealt with drug addiction, mental health challenges," said Hebbert, Coats' older cousin and the play's director. That history may have helped Coats' family know who to contact for help in the months leading up to his death. But still, Coats, dealing with mental illness from a young age and addiction, kept slipping through the cracks - he lost his housing, had his leg amputated, and was repeatedly released to the streets on his own."

Theris Coats II died of a drug overdose in a San Francisco jail in March. His parents filed a lawsuit against jail staff and his father is pursuing Theris' Law to allow emergency treatment placement by relatives. Coats' father and uncle founded Brothers Against Drug Deaths to advocate for mental health and addiction support in Black and underserved communities. Family members worked with recovery directors and playwright relatives to create a play visualizing the system's failures. Coats experienced mental illness and addiction from a young age, lost housing, had a leg amputated, and was repeatedly released to the streets despite efforts to intervene.

Read at Mission Local