Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/rduta/vcucns/Wikimedia Commons
In the past 13 months Antonio Sanchez has watched three of his friends overdose from opioids. The first two times, Sanchez, 22, was able to revive them with Narcan, the life-saving drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose, that his girlfriend had given him when she returned from rehab.
Then last month a third friend overdosed. Sanchez, who lives in Texas, quickly realized he had used up all his Narcan, and panicked when his friend started nodding off. “I called 911 on speaker phone, and the whole time I’m doing CPR,” he told The Daily Beast. Thankfully the ambulance arrived quickly and the EMTs were able to give his friend Narcan, but Sanchez has not been able to replace his Narcan stash despite repeated efforts. “It’s really hard to come by. No one really just has it,” he said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis that was already devastating the country has exploded and engulfed communities in ways few could have predicted. In 2021 more than 100,000 people died from opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of them were between the ages of 25 and 54 years old.