click to enlarge The west side garage where a man was found unresponsive in his car In late August, a man was found unresponsive in his car outside the west side location of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, a local overdose prevention and harm reduction group, according to former employee Nikki Carter. After Carter said she believed a responding employee was taking an uncharacteristically long time to treat the man and return to the office, she said she went out to help and saw other responding workers shaking the car and banging on the window. Carter, a former project manager and drug checking technician at the organization, said it was later discovered that the man had been in the car for more than two hours before anyone noticed him.
John Freyer with the Free Naloxone Bike (Photo by Steven Casanova)
Itâs hard to miss John Freyer as he rides through the city on a teal electric-assist bicycle. His destination? Teaching Richmonders how to save lives.
On the front of his bike, inside a wooden crate, are dozens of boxes of Narcan, a brand of naloxone, a lifesaving opioid reversal medication that can be easily administered as a nasal spray.
Freyer, an associate professor of cross-disciplinary media at VCU Arts, gives out the Narcan and demonstrates how to administer it properly on a CPR mannequin that he places on a board attached to the back of his bike.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s myriad effects on society and the economy have accelerated Pennsylvania’s other tragic public health emergency — deadly opioid addiction.