As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, the Safer WeHo Coalition is taking action to ensure individuals have access to life-saving resources during a time of celebration and increased risk. On Saturday, March 18th, 2023, the coalition will be distributing free naloxone and fentanyl test strips at the “Make Your Own Luck” event in West Hollywood Park.
The event, which begins at 7 p.m. on the Robertson Blvd. side of the park, will feature Pickle the drag queen assisting in distributing resources to those in need. The coalition includes a variety of agencies, including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Friends Community Center, Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Being Alive LA, Men’s Health Foundation, Los Angeles LGBT Center – WeHo Life, Tarzana Treatment Centers, Out Here Sexual Health, The Wall – Las Memorias Project, Drag Queen Story Hour, City of West Hollywood, and West Hollywood Project.
The goal of the Safer WeHo Coalition is to ensure that individuals have access to life-saving resources during a time of celebration and increased risk. With the use of naloxone and fentanyl test strips, the coalition hopes to prevent drug-related overdoses and deaths.
“We want everyone to have a great time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, but we also want them to be safe,” said a representative from the coalition. “By providing free naloxone and fentanyl test strips, we hope to prevent drug-related overdoses and deaths and ensure that everyone can make their own luck this St. Patrick’s Day weekend.”
Naloxone is a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, while fentanyl test strips can help individuals determine if a drug has been laced with the powerful synthetic opioid. The distribution of these resources is part of the coalition’s ongoing efforts to combat drug-related deaths and overdoses in West Hollywood.
The “Make Your Own Luck” event in West Hollywood Park is just one of the ways that the Safer WeHo Coalition is working to ensure the safety of individuals in the community. By bringing together a variety of agencies and resources, the coalition is taking proactive steps to prevent drug-related tragedies during a time of celebration.
For more information about the Safer WeHo Coalition and their ongoing efforts to combat drug-related deaths and overdoses in West Hollywood, visit their website at www.saferweho.org.
Whose idea was this? It’s a good one. For a change.
Let me see if I have this right– we’re going to spend sacred taxpayer money, to try to save irresponsible junkies and druggie who put inocent people at risk? Did I get that right? These are risk takers who have a death wish. There should be consequences for that kind of behavior. The city is only prolonging the inevitable.
Drug use is not a capital crime. These are life-saving harm reduction measures.
No one suggested it was a crime. I’m for decriminilizing all drugs. It’s just not for me to pay to bail them out time and time again. If they want to take a risk, let them. The quicker they end it all, the safer the rest of us are.
Not only that but the City encourages and exponentially perpetuates this type of behavior because they profit from it.
An emergency room visit for a junkie could cost the taxpayers $100,000, while the morgue is much cheaper, and we don’t have to keep repeating morgue costs like e.r. visits. It’s a win-win for everyone, including the druggie. The city is filled with Jimmy P. types who love wasting taxpayer money on treatment programs and hand holding that have little chance of success. There are consequences for risky behavior. Let’s not reward it.
The profit mentioned is from the revenue directed to the city from the venues that encourage this behavior even though it costs them in the way you mentioned. This outcome is too logical for them to recognize.
Sad that a good time in Weho necessitates access to these life saving resources.