The life of a San Jose man with a suspected fentanyl overdose was saved Tuesday after the city police chief and an assistant chief were flagged down by the victim's girlfriend, police said.
Police Chief Anthony Mata and Assistant Chief Paul Joseph were flagged down at approximately 12:40pm in the 500 block of Coleman Avenue, according to a police statement. The police brass were told that the man had ingested a white powdery substance and was unresponsive.
Additional officers arrived and administered two doses of Narcan, successfully counteracting the effects of the drug until paramedics arrived, according to police. The man was transported to a hospital where he was stabilized.
The substance was suspected to be fentanyl, an opioid that is between 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin.
Santa Clara County's Behavioral Health Services Department has made Narcan available countywide as part of its Overdose Prevention Project.
San Jose police lost one of their own to a fentanyl overdose this spring when Officer De'Jon Packer succumbed to the drug and was found dead in his home in Milpitas on March 13.
Packer succumbed? Like how?
Why is this a Good Samaritan act? Isn’t this his job? The story is that it’s unusual for a chief to be involved at this level. Fine, not such a big deal anyway. But if he’s on the job, then he can’t just ignore a plea for help. He’s a cop.
The “500 block of Coleman Avenue” or the vagrant “open air” drug camps IVO Columbus Park?
There are many wonders of modern science, and Narcan has been used to revive many suffering a drug overdose, but does anyone really believe that this so-called “San Jose Man” has learned his lesson? will be more responsible in the future? will convert to be a contributing member of his “local” community?
The added cost to taxpayers to allow unaccountable vagrants and transients to destroy local communities, parks, and open nature spaces is throwing good money away to enrich an expanding Homeless Industrial Complex business plan.
Unbelievable that “Experts say Narcan, safe-injection sites needed to halt overdoses” is the way forward – does any sane person really think keeping a population of “Zombies” in a city downtown, using taxpayer dollars to cater and “revive” them every so often is some kind of humane solution?
SanFranciso is trying it and it is a total disaster for the reputation of a once Grand City.
Oregon is trying it – but maybe their motive is to reduce the soaring homeless population? They found a “solution” and permanent home for over 1,069 so-called “homeless” persons in 2021.
(16 June 2022) “Woke Portland ‘Open Air Drug Market’; OD Deaths Up 41%”
– Democratic-led Portland, Ore. has become a veritable “open air drug market” since the state decriminalized hard drugs, and overdose deaths have skyrocketed 41%.
– Oregon decriminalized personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone, and other drugs following a 2020 ballot measure.
– Statewide deaths from overdoses also hit an all-time high in 2021 at 1,069. That was a 41% increase over 2020 before the initiative was implemented.
No faith that California will wake up and start to use a realistic approach to the soaring transient and vagrancy populations that are grouped with, and soft-peddled to, voters as some kind of so-called “unhoused” or “homeless” problem – in which the only solution is to house them in old hotels, tent camps, or junk RV parking lots.