Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chico’s mass overdose highlights severe new phase of opioid epidemic
sfchronicle ^ | 1/21/2019 | erin alday

Posted on 01/21/2019 9:42:27 AM PST by bitt

The first victim was outside the house, sprawled on a patio beside the garage. His friends were already performing CPR when Chico police got to the scene.

The others are inside, they told police.

Four more victims were in the garage, a converted space with couches and coffee tables. One was in the bathroom, having collapsed while taking a shower. Six others were scattered around the house in various stages of intoxication. Drugs and alcohol and the tools to ingest them were everywhere.

An officer radioed for help. Send everything, he said: All of the paramedics, all of the ambulances.

On this sleepy Saturday morning this month, 13 people at the same small party had overdosed all at once. Half of them had stopped breathing and needed CPR and the overdose-reversing drug naloxone to be revived. One man, a 34-year-old father of four, died before paramedics could get him to a hospital.

The incident is among the worst mass overdose events in Northern California since the opioid epidemic hit the state a decade or so ago. It offers a window into a still-new phase of that epidemic, as the ultra-potent drug fentanyl snakes into the supply of not just heroin and other opiates, but recreational drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Chico police Sgt. Curtis Prosise, one of the first officers on the scene. “We’ve had an overdose or two here or there, but nothing on that scale.”

(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: california; drugs; fentanyl; wod
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

What would a junkie do?

Gone through the place for valuables snd drugs and closed the door quietly upon leaving.


21 posted on 01/21/2019 10:35:57 AM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed it wright.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Such a detestable garbage headline “new severe phase” when this schizz happened in the Midwest and south starting 2014. Oh it’s in Chico now? Quelle surprise.


22 posted on 01/21/2019 10:40:38 AM PST by StAnDeliver ("Mueller personally delivered US uranium to Russia.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Somehow, overdosing by users of illegal drugs leaves by empathy meter stuck on ZERO.


23 posted on 01/21/2019 10:41:14 AM PST by Lion Den Dan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Eliminating the dregs of society. No sympathy. They did it to themselves. Stupid is as stupid does.


24 posted on 01/21/2019 10:49:50 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.S)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: M Kehoe
U.C. Chico is drug central for Butte and other counties.

That's CSU Chico, and if it is drug central it would be due to the large concentration of young people, but there are other towns around that are a lot seedier. Oroville, for example.
25 posted on 01/21/2019 10:52:18 AM PST by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

Only the first use or so is a choice. Addictive drugs reshape the brain. Once addiction sets in, using is no longer a choice—it becomes a compulsion. And that compulsion drives people to do almost anything to feed the addiction. Furthermore, an addiction cannot be cured. A person can be “clean” for decades and lapse back into use.

Factors that feed into developing an addiction include individual genetics and potency of the drug. The best defense against becoming addicted is to avoid use in the first place.


26 posted on 01/21/2019 10:56:06 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: fr_freak

“That’s CSU Chico, “

Oops. My bad.

Thanks.

5.56mm


27 posted on 01/21/2019 10:58:20 AM PST by M Kehoe (DRAIN THE SWAMP! BUILD THE WALL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: M Kehoe

Why the uproar? It is not America......it is California

With apologies to California Freepers......


28 posted on 01/21/2019 11:02:02 AM PST by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Princess Gray Beaver, for President?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: null and void

China, never mentioned once in the article. Just that, “Fentanyl is fairly easy and cheap to manufacture, “ no mention of where, or how it gets into the country.


29 posted on 01/21/2019 11:02:16 AM PST by Wayne07
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Leave them alone to grab for their destiny. It is a hell of a lot cheaper than the Narcan over and over again and all the Emergency vehicles and the personnel. Pay their interment expenses out of the public purse, even. It is the thanks the citizenry can give to these social misfits for removing themselves from society.


30 posted on 01/21/2019 11:02:36 AM PST by arthurus (kj)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: bitt

The Cartel lords do not want the wall built and they are paying our politicians very well to see that it is not built.


31 posted on 01/21/2019 11:04:11 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

Yeah but when you are 17 you don’t always understand that.


32 posted on 01/21/2019 11:04:30 AM PST by riri
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: bitt

There can be no solution to the “drug crisis” as long as there are users out there willing to pay lots of money for drugs. The solution needs to address the users, and that’s not going to happen if it includes punishing the rich and powerful, and their kids.


33 posted on 01/21/2019 11:06:25 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Why waste all the money, time and effort on saving those who do not want to be saved. They are just going to do it again as soon as they get back home.


34 posted on 01/21/2019 11:11:41 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Meanwhile liberals want to make all drugs legal if it insures their political victories.


35 posted on 01/21/2019 11:18:03 AM PST by DungeonMaster (Vote your bible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: riri
Yeah but when you are 17 you don’t always understand that.

I don't know if there's a 17 year old who has not yet heard that drug use can kill you. They may choose to disbelieve, at their own peril.

36 posted on 01/21/2019 11:21:04 AM PST by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625
The solution needs to address the users, and that’s not going to happen if it includes punishing the rich and powerful, and their kids.

I prefer the summary execution (after conviction) of all drug dealers, from street level to kingpin.

37 posted on 01/21/2019 11:24:06 AM PST by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: exDemMom
A person can be “clean” for decades and lapse back into use.

Which involves a series of CHOICES. Collect the funds, find a dealer, purchase the junk, cook it and inject it, then try to hide your "high" from others.

38 posted on 01/21/2019 11:30:44 AM PST by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: exDemMom
A person can be “clean” for decades and lapse back into use.

Which involves a series of CHOICES. Collect the funds, find a dealer, purchase the junk, cook it and inject it, then try to hide your "high" from others.

39 posted on 01/21/2019 11:35:54 AM PST by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: bitt

This is only the beginning.
Look for more such ‘events’ up and down the I5 drug highway from Seattle to San Diego.


40 posted on 01/21/2019 11:36:36 AM PST by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson