As the opioid crisis continues to impact the Bronx, a second overdose prevention presentation was held within the last six months at the latest 52nd Precinct Community Council meeting. The precinct, which covers the north Bronx, leads with the largest number of opioid-related deaths.

The presenter this time, Gavi Liebovitz, a drug awareness and overdose prevention coordinator, presented a slideshow explaining how to help someone that has overdosed on an opioid.

As popular as opioids, an assortment of different painkillers, has become, it is the introduction of fentanyl, a synthetic form of painkiller that has increased greatly the amount of people dying from overdoses.  Originally prescribed to people at the end of their life and very rarely, fentanyl has found its way into the illegal drug supply.

“It’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and heroin,” Liebovitz said.

It’s even found its way into non-painkiller drugs.  Liebovitz recounted a story from a detox center where a person entered for a Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, addiction and tested positive for opiates with fentanyl because they had bought it illegally on the street.

“We’re finding that all kinds of drugs are being laced with it [fentanyl],” said Liebovitz.

In the latest published report by the New York City Health Department for the first quarter of 2019, there were 331 overdose deaths citywide.  More than 80 percent of those involved opioids. Within the borough, the South Bronx has the highest rate of overdoses with 50 to 59.9 deaths per 100,000 residents.  The northwest Bronx has 20 to 29.9 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Although the Bronx is only the fourth most populous borough, it led the city in overdose deaths from January to March of 2019 with 84. At a recent Bedford Mosholu Community Association meeting, Deputy Inspector Thomas Alps, said the precinct leads with the most fatal drug overdoses, with 13. Alps noted that despite its efforts to clean up one shooting gallery in his jurisdiction, known to users as The Tunnel–the underpass leading to the Kingsbridge Road B/D station–the results have been short-term. Users are arrested, with many refusing city services.

Opioid prevention programs like the one Liebovitz conducts, seeks to get everyday New Yorkers involved in saving lives from overdoses.  By training more people in the use of naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, the most common medication used in reversing an opioid overdose, Liebovitz hopes the Bronx can see its number of deaths from overdoses decrease.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.