Overdose Awareness Follows Another Life Lost

“Gypsy” Kathleen McKenzie arrived at the Green for her daily walk with a purse full of nasal Narcan slung over her shoulder as usual — and wound up stocking that bag with Narcotics Anonymous brochures, fentanyl test strips, bracelets with phone numbers for addiction service providers, and more naloxone kits.

She took that stroll just days after another New Havener was found dead at 37-years-old of an overdose downtown and on the same day that the city hosted a parade of providers distributing information and resources for International Overdose Awareness Day.

The APT foundation, which runs a methadone clinic and offers addiction treatment services on Congress Avenue, the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN), and the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, were among around 20 organizations convened on the Green to draw attention to substance abuse, drug contamination, and overdose risk throughout Thursday afternoon.

McKenzie, like many to attend that event, was already keenly aware of the opioid epidemic’s growing effect on her community when she showed up.

“It’s horrible. It’s scaring me to death and I’m losing friends,” the 69-year-old told the Independent as she drifted between tables and tents lining the park’s walkways. Over the past month, McKenzie, who had been sleeping on the Green for months prior to securing a shelter bed this summer, said she’s heard of seven different friends who have died from overdoses. She’s administered Narcan herself on four individuals who she observed overdosing. And she last overdosed herself in March, when someone took Narcan out of her own bag to bring her back to life. 

McKenzie said she keeps two naloxone nasal sprays in her bag at all times, which she’s able to pick up at Rite Aid for no cost with a prescription and Medicaid coverage. ​“If three people overdose and I’m there, the third one is fucked,” she said.

“I don’t feel anything,” McKenzie said of each time she witnesses an overdose, ​“except here’s another fucking one.” 

Narcan was recently approved for purchase without prescription at any retailer with permits to sell over-the-counter medication; read more in the CT Mirror here. Read about other ways to access free Narcan and drug testing strips here.

On Thursday, the APT Foundation handed out free kits of injectable Narcan, instructing interested passerby with less experience than McKenzie on how to administer the opioid antagonist. 

The kit contained three bottles of .4 mg doses and two syringes. ​“Undo the syringe, unscrew the cap, put the needle into the dose, administer it into a muscle,” a clinician recited. Lay the person on their side so they don’t choke if they vomit; call 911 between the second and third dose; and inject the dose straight through their clothing into any muscle.

“You can’t harm someone with Narcan,” the clinician, who declined to share her name, noted. Even if you’re uncertain as to whether someone is overdosing, it’s worth using Narcan on anyone showing the relevant symptoms — blue nails and lips, slow breathing — in hopes of securing enough time to get them to the hospital. Still, the clinician warned, ​“fentanyl is so potent that we’re seeing people requiring eight, nine, ten doses of Narcan.” 

Evan Serio, a program manager at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, said that while Narcan is necessary with opioids making their way into more substances, ​“overdose reversal is more than Narcan.” Rescue breathing, for example, is a key practice in helping people overdosing not on opioids but other contaminants like xylazine, a veterinary sedative.

“Everyone should know that the street supply is chaotic and poisoned,” he said. He said that opioids have been found with more frequency lacing other substances like crack, which can be especially harmful on populations regularly consuming drugs with little tolerance for opioids. ​“There are a lot of older folks who smoke crack for years, and then are like, how’d that happen?” when they overdose, Serio said.

McKenzie said she formerly smoked crack to deal with personal traumas, including ongoing physical abuse from her former boyfriend, but has never been reliant on opioids. She overdosed more recently after smoking a synthetic marijuana joint. She never went to the hospital and doesn’t know exactly what happened, but said she came to after a friend performed rescue breathing and used McKenzie’s own Narcan to revive her. It’s possible, McKenzie said, that the K2 had been laced with opioids. 

"We're Losing People Left & Right"

The passing of a different woman off the green, a 37-year-old who reportedly overdosed on Aug. 24 after reportedly consuming crack cocaine laced with fentanyl, is one of the latest drug-related tragedies to take place in New Haven. Police did not confirm her death or its cause by the publication time of this article, but close friend Tyrell Jackson told the Independent that she was transported to the hospital after she and her friend both overdosed near a church just off the Green; he survived, she did not.

“She had just gotten a full Section 8 housing voucher. She had just gotten out of an abusive relationship. But like a lot of people in this community, she had vices,” Jackson said as he set up his own tent on behalf of the Unhoused Community Activist Team (U‑ACT) on Thursday. 

Jackson himself was homeless for years until finally securing an apartment with the help of a housing voucher this summer. While working part-time, he still spends his days performing self-motivated outreach work, carrying test strips, naloxone kits, and water bottles throughout New Haven’s neighborhoods for those in need — primarily those without housing. ​“Overdose prevention is a big part of the unhoused lifestyle,” he said. ​“A lot of people don’t have the tools or knowledge they need to use safely.”

Jackson recalled the woman as a ​“beautiful person,” a mother with an abundance of friends and a sense of excitement for life. Like McKenzie, she faced a long history of domestic violence that hurt her housing stability and fueled her dependence on drugs. 

Jackson said she had hit up her same dealer as usual the week before, but unfortunately received a contaminated batch of crack. 

Now, Jackson said, he is planning two memorials for this coming week: One for his best friend, Keith Petrulis, who died on the sidewalk outside the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen in mid August while without housing and facing chronic health issues, and one for his god sibling. 

“We’re losing people left and right,” he said.

While Thursday saw stories of tragedy exchanged, a volunteer named Nick P. with Narcotics Anonymous stood around the corner offering hope.

He said he’s been clean for 12 years since attending a month-long rehab program and going to his first NA meeting in East Haven. 

“I used when I was younger, but my addiction to heroin really took off after my first wife committed suicide,” in the 1980s, he said. ​“My son was seven, my daughter four. I was just very angry. My life hit rock bottom when I was homeless, I had lost my job, my family didn’t want nothing to do with me and I had a lot of friends who were dying.

“I realized if I didn’t get clean I was gonna die. No matter what people said to me, I was ready when I was ready.” Now, he is more than a decade clean and remarried to a woman also in recovery.

“I’m here to help other addicts and let them know they ain’t gotta use,” he said. ​“But you gotta want to get clean.”

See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.

• Three Tents Pop Up On The Green
• Unhoused Activists Mourn One Of Their Own
• Homeless Activist Found Dead Outside Soup Kitchen
• Opinion: Don’t Sweep People Away
• Union Station Clears Out
• 50 New Homeless Shelter Beds Open In The Hill
• Tuesday In The State St. Triangle With David
• DESK Preps For Temp Relocation, Major Renovations
• Parking Chief: Homelessness At Union Station Is A Housing Problem
• Closing Time At Union Station
• City Housing Plight Brought To The​‘Burbs
• Tent City Exiles Re-Camp On Rosette
• Debate Q: The Lesson Of Tent City Was …
• Homeless Youth Housing Plan Revived
• 6 Crisis Beds OK’d For Winthrop Ave
• Non-Cop Crew Cruises To Crisis Calls
• Don’t Like Encampments? Fund Solutions
• Brennan Slams Elicker For​“Cruel” Tent City Sweep
• Why & How We Took Action At The Encampment
• DuBois-Walton: Tent City Reflects Broader Housing Crisis
• Tent City Bulldozed
• Tent City Campers Start To Clear Out
• ​“Tent City” Hit With New Move-Out Order
• ​“Tent City” Survives City Cleanup Order
• Competing Visions Emerge For Homelessness $
• Surprise Drop-Off Turns Bottle Man East
• State Lands $18M Homelessness Lifeline
• Tent Citizen By Choice Builds Community
• Shelter Sought From Cold-Weather Emergency
• Homelessness Advocates Brace For​“Tidal Wave”
• Breakfast Delivery Warms Up​“Tent City”
• Warming Centers Open, While City Looks To Long-Term Homeless Fixes
• ​“Human Rights Zone” Grows In Hill Backyard
• Homeless Hotel Plan Scrapped. What’s Next?
• Election Day Rally Casts Ballot For Housing