Last night my wife and I just wanted to get a sandwich. We walked towards our car and saw a man, who, from a distance, looked like he was sleeping on the ground. As is procedure, we called for the courtesy patrol to check on the situation. With the rise in drug fueled violence in our area, we are always told not to physically approach someone who looks comatose. That said, I still have my own procedure. That is, to from a safe distance, check on that person and offer them food or water.
However as we approached we could tell something was very wrong. He was lying in a bent state, almost folded, with his head pointed directly towards the ground and he was limp with no visible chest movements. We called 911. The dispatcher told us that it was not a good idea to startle him, as the concern was a Fetanyl overdose. So I called to him where he lay, and after a few attempts he popped his head up, completely oblivious to his surroundings.
He might have been in his late 20’s, and slight. He could not have been more than five foot four and 130 pounds. His face was flushed and he appeared clammy. I asked him if he had been out in the heat all day and he weakly nodded yes. My wife went to get him water and we brought it down to him while we waited for medics to evaluate him.
They got there and determined that he was not in immediate distress and left him in the hands of a police officer to determine where, if anywhere, he could go. In Tempe, the police are called to situations like this dozens of times a day. The officer talked to us explaining that from her experience, he was exhibiting signs of Fetanyl use. She was not optimistic for this man.
He was polite, but not coherent. I didn’t really even know what Fetanyl was. Unable to sleep, I found out.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent.1,2 It is a prescription drug that is also made and used illegally. Like morphine, it is a medicine that is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, especially after surgery.3 It is also sometimes used to treat patients with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to other opioids.4 Tolerance occurs when you need a higher and/or more frequent amount of a drug to get the desired effects.
Ok so it is in that heroin lane, only by prescription, got it. Pure nastiness. Pharmacological flypaper. This is happening all over. I don’t have statistics for this area, but the Los Angeles numbers are stunning.
Overdoses, not COVID-19, drive spike in LA homeless deaths
A new report shows that nearly 2,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles County during the first year of the pandemic, an increase of 56% from the previous year, driven mainly by drug overdoses.
Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, the county recorded 1,988 deaths of homeless people, up from 1,271 deaths during the same period a year earlier, the report said.
During both of those years, drug overdoses were the leading cause of death but increased by 78% during the pandemic's first year. In the pre-pandemic year, the Department of Public Health reported 402 fatal overdoses. In the year after the outbreak, the number nearly doubled to 715, the report said.
That is bonko. That is just one county.
In Phoenix metro, it is estimated some 5,000 persons live on the streets. It is likely this is a large underestimation.
5,000 people are living on the streets of metro Phoenix, a 33% increase from 2020
Slightly more than 5,000 people are living on the streets of metro Phoenix, according to the latest countywide count of people experiencing homelessness.
The point-in-time count conducted in January found 5,029 people experiencing homelessness outside of shelter. That's up 33% from 3,767 in 2020. There wasn't a count in 2021 because of COVID-19 concerns.
The dramatic increase is troubling but not unexpected. Homelessness has increased in metro Phoenix each year from 2014 to 2020, and experts predicted the pandemic-caused recession led to more homelessness.
The tough reality is that it wasn’t even “that hot” yesterday. It wasn’t humid. But the man sought shade, if not shelter, and while he may or may not have used Fetanyl, or anything else, it doesn’t change the fact that the conditions are soon to be absolutely brutal. It doesn’t change the fact that he is a human being, worthy of respect and compassion, in a nation far less likely to give it to him than ever before.
I read about plans. About commissions. About recommendations. About, and this is the word I most recoil at, “studies.” There is always a study, or a task force, or a future meeting to talk about, well, future meetings. Let me show you something..
This is from three months ago.
This is from 35 years ago. The story begins at 2:34 into the video.
Nearly 35 years apart, and the news is talking about sweeping homeless encampments.
You know, 30 years ago, in high school, we had an assignment about what we thought the future would be like. I said clean streets, adequate shelter, clean water, new infrastructure, renewable energy based transportation. With the exception of expensive electric cars, I was about as predictive as a Magic 8 Ball. That depresses me.
The same bridges and overpasses are makeshift shelters for desperate, often medically ill persons. The same excuses keep being made. The same rotten can keeps being kicked down the road. The same promises of council votes and actions keep coming up empty.
I am not mad at a man for being under our stairwell. I am mad that our country somehow has been so unwilling to invest in anything other than grotesque wealth growth at the top that the man thought that was his best option on a warm, but by no means, hot day in the valley.
And I wonder, what YouTube clip, in 35 years, will be showing plastic politicans making the same lame excuses.
-ROC
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