Disastrous…
dis·as·trous – dəˈzastrəs/ – adjective 1. causing great damage. “a disastrous fire swept through the museum”
| synonyms: | catastrophic, calamitous, cataclysmic, tragic. |
- informal – highly unsuccessful: “the team made a disastrous start to the season”
That about sums up the past week in regards to suspected overdoses. Remember that cheery email I sent out a week ago saying that things were looking good since we only had 28 overdoses for the month? Well, starting Saturday afternoon at around 3 p.m. something hit the streets that hit the users hard. Since that time we have treated 41 overdoses and destroyed our positive month. We now sit at 70. Yay. The interesting thing is that we haven’t had to administer more Naloxone than normal so it isn’t as if Carfentanil has re-emerged but we hear from users from time to time that what’s out on the street “just isn’t strong enough.” Well, someone got the memo on that one and the mix has been changed. I don’t know what it is and I’m not even going to speculate. The overall area is still the same (inner city, lower income, high rental areas) and the clientele is relatively the same, with the approximate same number of new victims repeated. We did see three people twice each, during that time, which was kinda weird, but that subsided too.
I wish I had better news, but the only “silver lining” to this recent mini-explosion is that there haven’t been any fatal situations. Now that I’ve said that, that will probably change too.
Below you will find the most up-to-date Suspected Overdose Fact Sheet, Safe Station Fact Sheet, and OD Graph.
Christopher Hickey is Director of Emergency Services for the City of Manchester.
Struggling with addiction? Help is available 24 hours a day/7 days a week
Call 603-625-6980 any time day or night at Serenity Place, 351 Chestnut St., Manchester, from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. any day. Help is available, regardless of ability to pay. Help is also available at any Manchester Fire Station at any time through Safe Station.
Other resources:
