Tag: opioids

The answers they received shocked them. Of the drug users the Health Department surveyed, 45 percent told researchers that they weren’t trying to avoid fentanyl at all — that they would be more likely to use a bag of fentanyl.

“There was more acceptance — it had become part of the community in a way it hadn’t been initially. It was actually something people were going for because it was an enhanced high,” said Kendra Viner, manager of the department’s Opioid Surveillance Program. “And people between 25 and 34 years old were significantly more likely to say they would seek out fentanyl.”

http://www2.philly.com/philly/health/fentanyl-synthetic-opioid-drug-overdoses-philadelphia-pennsylvania-20181024.html

By Aubrey Whelan

 

At an opioid crisis conference, up on stage at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, a city health worker demonstrated how to administer NARCAN Nasal Spray, if you suspect someone is experiencing an overdose.

Allison Herens, the city health department’s harm-reduction coordinator, approached the torso of a mannequin, telling the audience the first step is to alert the person you’re there to help.

https://kywnewsradio.radio.com/articles/news/philly-opioid-conference-shows-how-narcan-could-save-overdose-victims

By Steve Tawa

Philadelphia County has the highest overdose rate of any of the 10 most populous counties in America. The city’s Department of Health estimates that 75,000 residents are addicted to heroin and other opioids, and each day, many of them commute to Kensington to buy drugs. The neighborhood is part of the largest cluster of overdose deaths in the city. In 2017, 236 people fatally overdosed there.

By Jennifer Percy

However, Allison Herens, who has served as Philadelphia’s harm-reduction coordinator for about one year, said she hoped the effort to teach people how to use the strips would extend the general conversation about harm reduction during the opioid crisis.

“Just like every other harm-reduction effort, it’s not going to save everyone’s life,” Herens said about the test strip initiative. “But it opens the door to conversations with people to help reinforce safer [drug-using] practices. It opens it up to a much bigger conversation that should be happening on a regular basis.”

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news/tino-fuentes-isn-t-telling-drug-users-to-quit-but/article_2a7b4478-c331-11e8-a4c5-bf896f567157.html

By Courtenay Harris Bond

“It’s not easy,” said Allison Herens, harm reduction coordinator at Philadelphia’s Public Health Department. She conducts regular trainings about naloxone and how to administer it, and recently led one for about two-dozen people at the South Philadelphia Library on Broad Street.

“There are lots of different kinds of emergencies that happen on the street in any moment and it can be hard to discern if it’s actually an emergency or not,” she told the group.

https://whyy.org/articles/philly-says-its-simple-narcan-saves-lives-knowing-when-to-use-it-can-be-more-complicated/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/10/29/660640838/opioid-antidote-can-save-lives-but-deciding-when-to-use-it-can-be-challenging

By Nina Feldman

The overdoses were linked to drugs purchased mostly around McPherson Square and Kensington and Allegheny Avenues over Friday and Saturday. While test results are pending, officials believe a combination of heroin or fentanyl and the synthetic cannabinoid K2 were involved, according to an email alert from the Department of Health obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/philadelphia-overdoses-heroin-fentanyl-k2-kensington-20180923.html

By Aubrey Whelan

While the opioid crisis is most acute by far in Kensington, overdose deaths in South Philly increased by 41 percent from 2016 to 2017. All told, 132 of the city’s 1,217 overdose deaths last year were in the community. Jefferson Methodist Hospital’s ER on South Broad Street had the city’s third-highest volume of overdose patients in the city in 2016.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/health/addiction/heroin-opioid-crisis-south-philadelphia-20180914.html

By Aubrey Whelan

Farley said the increases in heroin overdose cases were “reflective of how the entire problem has shifted.”

“It started out as a prescription problem, but people are switching to heroin because it’s cheaper,” he said. He said doctors need to continue reducing opioid prescriptions “to stop people from getting addicted in the first place.” But, he said, those reductions must be coupled with more accessible treatment, so that people already dependent on pills don’t turn to heroin if a doctor reduces their prescription.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/health/addiction/hospital-stays-for-heroin-overdoses-in-pa-spike-especially-among-hispanics-20180912.html

By Aubrey Whelan

“What’s insane is that the new normal in Pennsylvania is that year over year, the overdose death rate is increasing by 30 percent,” said Devin Reaves, executive director of the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Coalition. “All solutions to save lives must be on the table.”

The city’s official statement takes the same tack. “History has proven that the way governments handled previous drug epidemics was wrong, and to repeat it will result in the same disasters,” the Mayor’s Office and Health Dept. wrote. “And just as local governments had to lead during the HIV epidemic, cities like ours will be on the forefront of saving lives in the opioid crisis.”

https://billypenn.com/2018/09/12/this-state-rep-threatens-to-freeze-phillys-funding-if-an-overdose-prevention-site-opens/

By Michaela Winberg

Teaser: https://www.telemundo62.com/noticias/local/Serie-investigativa-_Crisis-Letal_-de-T62_TLMD—Philadelphia-491473001.html

Part 1: https://www.telemundo62.com/noticias/destacados/Crisis-Letal-Vertiginoso-ascenso-en-muertes-por-sobredosis-filadelfia-pensilvania-alexandra-zenteno-jose-lopez-thomas-farley-493088501.html

Part 2: https://www.telemundo62.com/noticias/destacados/Crisis-Letal-Ansian-el-cambio-de-lo-que-ven-como-normal-filadelfia-pensilvania-drogas-muertes-sobredosis-493192481.html

Part 3: https://www.telemundo62.com/noticias/destacados/Crisis-Letal-Empoderan-todo-aquel-que-ayude-filadelfia-pensilvania-departamento-de-salud-naloxone-493333991.html

By Iris Delgado and Rita Portela