We respond for the “overdose.” In a lot that is littered with wax bags and other drug paraphernalia, a Spanish man is sitting alone in a row of three portable chairs in the sun. His eyes are closed, his mouth is open. He is as still as a dead man. While my partner pulls the…
A Connecticut woman was found in her house six months after police came for an initial welfare check when a neighbor reported she hadn’t seen her for a few weeks. The police came back several more times in the ensuing months, but each time were stymied by the mountain of junk that made it nearly…
The heat wave supposedly ended two days ago, but here I am sweltering in an ambulance sitting in the parking lot behind CVS. My phone says its 79 degrees, but there is no shade, no wind, the humidity is heavy and the AC isn’t worth shit. I had to go to bed early last night…
“Addicts take opiates and other sedatives specifically to induce a pleasant stupor. If they’re lethargic and hard to arouse, but still breathing effectively, it’s not an overdose. It’s a dose.” –Boston paramedic This is a quote I included in a presentation I put together for the state of Connecticut back in 2014 when we designed…
Once a month, the CDC releases their provisional fatal overdose data based on a 12-month rolling average. The CDC’s data is 4 months behind. Lately, each month the release of the data has led to glowing articles about overdoses going down, which they had been for some time — quite substantially. That was until this…
This is my first Father’s Day without my own father who passed away last August at 90. I think of him everyday. While I can’t call him, it is not hard for me to remember him. I see him hitting a home run in a company picnic softball game when I was a little boy….
The Washington Post published an article on May 31, 2025 called: The mysterious drop in fentanyl seizures on the U.S.-Mexico border: The reasons behind the decrease of fentanyl seizures in the U.S. and along the Mexico-U.S. border are complex. The article has brought the Post some scathing criticism from President Trump supporters, who claim the obvious…
Every June Rich Kamin, my EMS Medical Director and I give a talk on EMS Stroke Care at our hospital’s annual Emergency Stroke Symposium. This has been going on for a decade now. We are a good team. I am the play by play man and he is the color commentator. I put the presentation…
I am part of a statewide harm reduction advocacy group, called SHArP (Statewide Harm Reduction Partnership), who have been working to pass legislation in Connecticut to create overdose prevention centers (OPCs) similar to those already established in New York and Rhode Island, where people can use drugs in clean, safe conditions where trained staff are…
An old friend of mine who still works the road full time confided in me that he was again having a crisis of faith. We have often talked about burnout, each of us having periods when we found it a struggle to uphold the highest standards of patient care. Not the medicine part, which is…
There has been much speculation about why fatal overdose deaths have been declining nationwide. Here are some of the reasons mentioned in a plethora of articles: 1. Increased Availability of Naloxone 2. Expanded Addiction Treatment 3. Shift from Injecting to Smoking and Other Safer Practices such a as Not Using Alone 4. Impact of Opioid…
Saturday morning my partner and I walked down to the pavilion by the pond in Pope Park to check out the heroin (fentanyl) bags that are easily found in the grass and on the pavilion floor, along with discarded syringes and other paraphrenelia. At least once a month I like to go down there to…
A man likely in his thirties buys $10 worth of cocaine from a Park Street dealer and then buys a bundle (ten 0.1 gram bags) of fentanyl from another for $15. He buys the fentanyl to keep withdrawal at bay and he buys the cocaine to give him the energy to collect enough cans and…
The monthly CDC provisional overdose death data was released on Wednesday, again revealing a continued decline in the nation’s overdose deaths. The data which covers a rolling 12-month period from January 2024 to December 2024 shows a 24.6% annual decline in reported deaths and a 28.7% decline from its peak rolling 12-month reported death high…
In February I wrote about opioid epidemic opportunists who were playing on people’s fears to make profits. Among them are the OPVEE people who are targeting police departments to try to get them to help market their high-dose nalmafene, a long lasting opioid antagonist that medical professionals believe is both unnecessary and dangerous. These opportunists…
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who park head first and those who back in. The numbers of those who back in are increasing every day. Like most in the older generation, I park head first unless there is an unusual situation. If I am in a lot when I know…
Tomorrow is Thursday and I am sad that The Pitt has finished its season 1 run of 15 episodes and there are no new episodes to watch. While I have a few criticisms of the show, overall, I thought it was the best medical TV show ever and among my top 5 favorites of any…
Medetomidine, an animal sedative, appears to be replacing xylazine as a significant adulterant in fentanyl and perhaps other drugs. According to reports from Philadelphia, one of the areas where xylazine first gained prominence, medetomidine was in 87% of samples of fentanyl in November 2024 compared to just 42% of samples which contained xylazine, while at…
This week, Attorney General Pam Biondi claimed President Trump had saved 119 million lives in the first 100 days of his administration through the nation’s drug seizure activities. Later in the day, in a cabinet meeting, she claimed the number of lives saved was 258 million. This claim is based on the US seizing 22.2 million…
Johnson & Johnson, say it isn’t so. I just finished listening to No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by investigative reporter Gardiner Harris, who takes down the corporation that has long had a reputation as one of America’s finest and most ethical companies. Listen to this: “Fifteen years into one of…