The Los Angeles City Council is moving forward with plans for a new pilot program to distribute naloxone, an opioid inverter, to the South Los Angeles area.
The allegations were first introduced in early February by members of the 9th and 10th District Council, Karen Price and Heather Hutt.
A unanimous vote among people at Friday’s meeting will bring forward reports on the resources the program needs.
Council members Bob Blumenfield, Isabel Jurad, Adlin Nazarian, Nitya Raman and Katie Jaroslavsky were absent during the vote.
City Council hopes to use the funds available from the 2021 Opioid Settlement to fund the program. LA is expected to receive between $29.6 million and $53.3 million over 18 years from two opioid distributors in its pool. About 80% of that pool will be restricted for future opioid repairs, with the remaining 20% being opioid-related projects, according to city documents.
More than 3,000 people died from drug overdose in 2023, according to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.
Lawmakers point out fentanyl as a major cause of recent cases. Very common and inexpensively manufactured synthetic drugs are 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
A recent report from the county public health department found that fentanyl-related deaths increased from 109 to 1,970 between 2016 and 2023, an increase of around 1,700%.
“Increasing access to naloxone will allow us to act quickly and reduce deaths, particularly in areas where mortality rates from fentanyl are at least twice as high,” the motion reads.
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