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Break room8/7/2023 ![]() Then I gave him the second dose of Narcan, kept going on compressions, and finally he came back.”Īt the time, he had been on the job about two months, working for a Metro contractor, Strive Well-Being Inc. “He wasn’t coming back, and I started compressions. “I just immediately grabbed Narcan that I had, and I administered it,” he said. The first time, he spotted a man passed out on a bench at the Civic Center/Grand Park station with a needle in his arm, lips turning purple. Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins has said she hopes that training of its officers and 327 ambassadors - who are contracted to greet and help passengers - will have a “huge impact” on the system.įabian Bolanos, 52, says he has administered the drug four times since he started as an ambassador in fall. riders bail on Metro trains amid ‘horror’ of deadly drug overdoses, crimeĬommuters have abandoned large swaths of a Los Angeles Metro train system plagued by crime and the scourge of drugs. Recently, transit safety officers and ambassadors have been trained.Ĭalifornia L.A. “To do something about it.”Īt that point, Metro employees had not been trained on how to use Narcan, although law enforcement officers who patrol the system carry the drug. “It was the push that I needed to look into it,” he said. That night, he searched online for training videos online. The worker was astonished at his recovery. The man came to and walked off without acknowledgment. He clutched the tiny spray bottle and pumped a dose up the man’s nose. “I had a different perspective on the overdoses that I would see,” he said. The friendship gave him a new understanding. On Christmas Eve, just two months before, the friend died of an overdose. He had a baby on the way, had gone through rehab and was seemingly starting a new chapter. The young man was earnest, asking about how credit works and buying a home. “To be honest, I didn’t really give a s-.”īut the year before, he had befriended a 21-year-old struggling with fentanyl addiction. “They did this to themselves,” he recalled thinking. He had had little sympathy for the riders he saw daily, strung out in bench seats. In the past, the worker would have felt the same. None wanted to administer a drug they had yet been trained to use, he said. ![]() The worker pulled the packet from his Metro vest and offered up the Narcan to the officers. “From what I can tell, he was very, very close to death.” Not breathing, vomiting on himself,” the worker said. Metro transit officers were standing over a young man with tussled hair and skin-tight white pants. That night in February last year, he arrived to see a limp body sprawled out inside a rail car, according to his photos of the incident. ![]() But the employee with Narcan in his pocket didn’t need data to prove how bad things had gotten. I pray a lot because, Lord, only Jesus can change it,” she said.Ĭomplaints about drug use and sales reported on the Metro Transit Watch app soared nearly 100% last year compared with the previous year. Her photo feed is filled with pictures of men taking drugs, people half clothed, dead bodies, fights and blood-stained walls. “The societal issues of drug abuse, crime, and homelessness across our county have made it much harder for them to do their jobs - and for Metro to provide the service it is intended to provide: safe, clean, efficient and reliable transportation.”Ī worker who was attacked a few years ago during her night shift said she was told not to record scenes she sees daily on her phone. County, our frontline employees bear the burden of discovering people who’ve overdosed, cleaning up after drug users or encountering their behavior while the drugs are in effect,” Metro spokesperson Pamela Krebs said in an email. “Unfortunately, when people with drug abuse issues come into our system from the communities we serve across L.A. Housing & Homelessness Violent crime and verbal abuse at Union Station have become unbearable, some workers sayĪs homeless people shelter in Union Station, janitors and retail workers face threats, erratic behavior and assaults. ![]()
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