Year after year, Los Angeles County has seen devastating losses on its streets, as homeless people bedding down in tents, under tarps and on sidewalks have lost their lives to drug overdoses at soaring rates.
Now a newly released report shows the death rate from overdoses stopped rising among unhoused people in the county in 2022 — the same year L.A. County was stepping up its efforts to save lives.
Public health officials welcomed the news as a glint of hope, but cautioned it is too soon to say if the numbers are headed for a lasting downturn. They pointed to a county push to dramatically ramp up the distribution of naloxone — a medicine that bystanders can use to stop opioid overdoses — as a likely factor.
In their report, county officials touted a “near doubling” that year in the reported number of overdoses that were thwarted with naloxone, based on figures provided by a county program. The lifesaving medicine is commonly sold as a nasal spray under the brand name Narcan.
Two years ago in North Hollywood, Manny Placeres told The Times he had revived people seven times using Narcan that had been provided to him by a county team, honing his technique with time.