AUDIO – THE HOMELESS SHELTERS TOO? –

March 21, 2024 – “We really want to get health and harm reduction folks out there with the counselors to really try to offer people options to get into therapy and treatments so they can kind of break the cycle of narcotic abuse.”

“When I look back over the last two years and think about things, these overdoses tend to steadily increase every few weeks, a couple more, a couple more, a couple more. And then the police department and the DEA and all the folks in law enforcement make a publicized arrest. And they take two or three major dealers, you know, off the streets and they arrest them. And then you see the overdoses immediately, like within a week, drop way off,” Ireland said.

But that decline lasts for four to six months, and then the overdoses go up again, he said.

“More than anything, we’re seeing it in the homeless encampments and especially encampments on the fringes of Chinatown, Iwilei, ‘A‘ala Park. We’re seeing almost every day somebody overdose in that area,” Ireland said.  

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