The Opioid Epidemic Is So Bad That Librarians Are Learning How To Treat Overdoses

[hand2handking]

[h1]The opioid epidemic is so bad that librarians are learning how to treat overdoses[/h1]

[h6]Libraries and a public health disaster[/h6]
Long viewed as guardians of safe spaces for children, library staff members like Kowalski have begun taking on the role of first responder in drug overdoses. In at least three major cities -- Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco -- library employees now know, or are set to learn, how to use the drug naloxone, usually known by its brand name Narcan, to help reverse overdoses.

Their training tracks with the disastrous national rise in opioid use and an apparent uptick of overdoses in libraries, which often serve as daytime havens for homeless people and hubs of services in impoverished communities.

In the past two years, libraries in Denver, San Francisco, suburban Chicago and Reading, Pennsylvania have become the site of fatal overdoses.

"We have to figure out quickly the critical steps that people have to take so we can be partners in the solution of this problem," Julie Todaro, president of the American Library Association, told CNN.

[h6]A notice on the bathroom door informs patrons of rules to use the bathroom at McPherson Square Library.[/h6]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/health/opioid-overdose-library-narcan/index.html

Thoughts? 

 

[Belgium]

Is naloxone (branded as Narcan) available over the counter for y'all? It should at least be made available to everyone at a very low pricepoint.

What it does is in simple terms is cut off the connection between the opioids and the opioid receptors in the brain to completely halt the drug's effects. Opioids take effect by binding themselves to opioid receptors. It's a bit more complicated than that obviously but what Narcan does to disrupt that process is it removes the opioids bound to those receptors and prevent them from binding again as long as the Narcan remains active. This is because Narcan binds itself to the same receptors but with a much stronger affinity than opioids, hence why it "kicks out" the opioids from those receptors and prevent them from binding again.

It works quite fast and because it renders the opioids useless regardless of the amount consumed, it can "revive" people from an opioid overdose.

 

[solemate96]

This is a good idea and Massachusetts should have been the first one to do this. There is a serious epidemic here in Massachusetts with people overdosing on a daily basis.

 

[6pac]

why didnt they do this when it was us [emoji]127998[/emoji]‍

im seeing a lot of sympathy for drug abuse now that it attracts different type of user

also lol at not being able to #booboo at a comfortable pace because someone else wanted to do heroin

 

[numbah1grimey]

Don't care

 

[kingfoamnyc]

Where was this outcry when crack hit the inner cities in the 80's ?

 

[wavycrocket]

+1 on the last 3 posts

 

[SC kid]

This is whats poppin at the bibliotecca nowadays?? Lol
Wat the hell
I aint been in a min lol

 

[frshstunna]

Nothing matters in the USA till it hits the middle class whites..then its an "uproar" or "crisis"

They shut down the OG GOAT 4 Loko cuz middle class suburban white moms started crying that their kids cant handle it

 

[getback]

In Massachusetts we're about to pilot "safe injection" sites and start putting Narcan everywhere so that pedestrians can administer. Hamsterdam all over again. The republicans are furious.

See this all the time on methadone mile in Boston.

 

[azul rolex]

why didnt they do this when it was us [emoji]127998[/emoji]‍

im seeing a lot of sympathy for drug abuse now that it attracts different type of user

also lol at not being able to #booboo at a comfortable pace because someone else wanted to do heroin

Where was this outcry when crack hit the inner cities in the 80's ?

Don't care

All of this

 

[RustyShackleford]

I get the feeling of wanting to point and laugh and tell the white community "Ha, now it is your turn", I too have had feelings like those. And it pisses me off that the different responses each epidemic got.

Yes it is hitting the white community the hard but this is not reason to celebrate in anyway.

Black folk are getting caught up in this too, and it is ravaging Native American communities probably worst than anyone else.

We should not take pleasure in seeing a public health crisis play out. A) It is dangerous and could get worst, for everyone, and B) It makes us just as morally bankrupt as the clowns that stood back in the 80s,and laugh at crack ravaging the inner cities

Acknowledge the clear hypocrisy, but support this getting solved quick.

 

[truballa101]

Why don't they just stop doing drugs and get a job?

 

[sharpshooter718]

Why don't they just stop doing drugs and get a job?

 

[numbah1grimey]

I get the feeling of wanting to point and laugh and tell the white community "Ha, now it is your turn", I too have had feelings like those. And it pisses me off that the different responses each epidemic got.

Yes it is hitting the white community the hard but this is not reason to celebrate in anyway.

Black folk are getting caught up in this too, and it is ravaging Native American communities probably worst than anyone else.

We should not take pleasure in seeing a public health crisis play out. A) It is dangerous and could get worst, for everyone, and B) It makes us just as morally bankrupt as the clowns that stood back in the 80s,and laugh at crack ravaging the inner cities

Acknowledge the clear hypocrisy, but support this getting solved quick.

This what "society" wanted. America is to soft of a nation anyhow and most try to run away from reality. Now people are forced to confront it face to face. I'm not empathizing with a people who outlined and created this situation due to greed and mental conditioning.

 

[frshstunna]

In Massachusetts we're about to pilot "safe injection" sites and start putting Narcan everywhere so that pedestrians can administer. Hamsterdam all over again. The republicans are furious.

See this all the time on methadone mile in Boston.

that good ole dope fiend lean

 

[ahat]

Not surprised by this at all. They be all up in the libraries and coffee shops and fastfood bathrooms. The heavy drug areas the bathrooms are locked and you gotta ask the people working to buzz you in cuz fiends be going in there to shoot up that heron or fentanyl and OD in the stall and ****.

Is naloxone (branded as Narcan) available over the counter for y'all? It should at least be made available to everyone at a very low pricepoint.
What it does is in simple terms is cut off the connection between the opioids and the opioid receptors in the brain to completely halt the drug's effects. Opioids take effect by binding themselves to opioid receptors. It's a bit more complicated than that obviously but what Narcan does to disrupt that process is it removes the opioids bound to those receptors and prevent them from binding again as long as the Narcan remains active. This is because Narcan binds itself to the same receptors but with a much stronger affinity than opioids, hence why it "kicks out" the opioids from those receptors and prevent them from binding again.
It works quite fast and because it renders the opioids useless regardless of the amount consumed, it can "revive" people from an opioid overdose.

Ya i believe naloxone is available here in Canada, not sure about the US.

In Massachusetts we're about to pilot "safe injection" sites and start putting Narcan everywhere so that pedestrians can administer. Hamsterdam all over again. The republicans are furious.

See this all the time on methadone mile in Boston.

Same thing in Toronto. People are refusing it tho cuz they don't want fiends shooting up in their area...but they are regardless cept they doing it in parks and alleys now. Theres dirty needles in kids playgrounds. Theres 1 main downtown intersection, they be on the corner at 2 in the afternoon shooting up and lighting up. Real life land of the lost ****. My boy use to work at the community center on that block and told me some ****** up stories. Sweeping up needles and syringes every morning to not allowing adults in the facility.

 

[langfor5]

Heroin and meth use is rampant here in Denver, especially among the displaced. Because they have no where to go they tend to congregate at the downtown library.

Shooting up in the bathroom. Shooting up in the stacks. Hell shooting up right outside of the front door.

Library has gone to the toilet.

 

[wayniac211]

Where was this outcry when crack hit the inner cities in the 80's ?

 

[wballz]

Blame big pharma for lobbying againts marijuana and for more stronger pain killers.

 

[hand2handking]

there are 2 (or more) americas 

 

[TURBO UNO]

Where was this outcry when crack hit the inner cities in the 80's ?

Repped for bringing up this question.

Reagan didn't seem to care about the communities ravaged by it...unless he thought he was "helping" by simply jailing everyone using/selling.

 

[ninjahood]

ish still goin on? jeez.... its like double da crack era now.

 

[Sir San Diego]

I hate to be so cold, but I don't care. White people have had all the time in the world to change their ways. The ones who aren't responsible for the mistreatment of black and brown people did very little to correct the bad behavior they ALL benefit from. Call it karma or whatever, but if I see my brother whooping and robbing my neighbor daily for years and do nothing to stop him, I'm just as guilty.

In 2016, drug overdoses likely killed more Americans than the entire wars in Vietnam and Iraq

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vo...2017/7/7/15925488/opioid-epidemic-deaths-2016

The opioid crisis is straining the nation’s foster-care systems

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...759fb2-52a1-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html

More White People Are Dying Than Are Being Born in 17 States

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.time...eaths-exceed-births-united-states/?source=dam

 

[Nereyda Vuelve Por Dios]

Unfortunate but why is my first thought, librarians is still a profession ins 2017?

Any well, the poor and minority plight is only important when it effects white people.

My sis actually runs the Naxolone program in NYC for the DOH&MH. **** works apprently.