City Council Staffers Get Naloxone Training As Protesters Demand Safe Injection Sites

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — City Council staffers were trained on how to prevent opioid overdose deaths as protesters staged an act of civil disobedience to get Mayor Bill de Blasio to act on so-called safe injection sites.

City Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who represents the South Bronx, organized the training session, hoping staffers would take the information out into the community.

“It’s a very personal subject matter for me as the family member of several individuals who are drug addicted and who have come close to overdosing,” Ayala said.

#savealife NYC Alliance for Positive Change distributes #NARCAN kits and shows city council members how to use them. @wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/0MnCGsvBnR

— Marla Diamond (@MDiamond8) May 2, 2018

Staffers received training and naloxone kits from Reilly Glasgow with the Alliance for Positive Change who has saved over 50 lives using Narcan at the East Side Harm Reduction Center.

“I say this in joking but I’m jaded, this is something that you do all the time, you don’t even think about it. You just hope you’re not too late,” Glasgow said.

About a dozen arrested including City Councilman Steve Levin for blocking lower Broadway demanding sites where opioid users are monitored. @EndOverdoseNY @wcbs880 #opioidcrisis pic.twitter.com/4kTBSBPQj3

— Marla Diamond (@MDiamond8) May 2, 2018

As the training was held on the 16th floor at 250 Broadway, on street level more than a dozen people, including Brooklyn City Councilman Steven Levine, were arrested for sitting in a crosswalk, blocking traffic near City Hall.

They are demanding that de Blasio release the results of a City Hall-commissioned study on so called “safe consumption sites” where users are monitored.

https://twitter.com/mdiamond8/status/991694382284845061?s=21

“Nobody has ever died of an overdose in a single one of them, you know, we can’t really understand what’s complicated about the best public health intervention for saving lives,” said  melissa more is with the drug policy alliance.

“The mayor’s basically saying that it’s complicated, he wants to have everything in a row before he releases the report but while he’s doing that people are still dying,” said Hiawatha Collins with the Harm Reduction Coalition. “At the end of the day it’s not about politics, it’s not about where people are going in their position and elevating themselves, it’s about saving lives.”

Canada and Europe have long had monitored injection sites. There are none in the United States.

Neil A. Carousso produced Marla Diamond’s report for WCBS Newsradio 880.