100 signatures reached
To: Angie Craig, Maxine Dexter, Scott Merkley
Narcan on Portland TriMet
We need you to sign your name to make Narcan be accessible on Portland Public Transportation! This petition could save lives!
Why is this important?
My freshman year of high school, I was on the Max, when our Max was stopped for several minutes while the TriMet Safety and Response Team arrived, to help a man who has overdosed. Fortunately, the man was fine, but had there been more drugs in his system, without Narcan, he would have died in the time it took for the Safety Team to get there.
I have had multiple people tell me about how they are on drugs, and have been multiple people be kicked off the Max for the illegal possession of fentanyl. Currently, the TriMet system is relying on passengers to carry Narcan and save lives. This burden should not be on children.
“The number of unintentional overdose deaths related to illicitly manufactured fentanyl nearly quadrupled between 2020 and 2022, increasing from 223 to 843 overdose fatalities.” (Data source: CDC SUDORS Dashboard: Fatal Drug Overdose Data).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
I have had multiple people tell me about how they are on drugs, and have been multiple people be kicked off the Max for the illegal possession of fentanyl. Currently, the TriMet system is relying on passengers to carry Narcan and save lives. This burden should not be on children.
“The number of unintentional overdose deaths related to illicitly manufactured fentanyl nearly quadrupled between 2020 and 2022, increasing from 223 to 843 overdose fatalities.” (Data source: CDC SUDORS Dashboard: Fatal Drug Overdose Data).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- More than 645,000 people in the United States have died from overdoses involving opioids since the epidemic began;
- The number of annual opioid overdose deaths remains more than six times higher
than it was in 1999; - There were approximately 81,806 opioid overdose deaths in 2022
Years and 90% involved synthetic opioids other than methadone - There were nearly 290,000 hospitalizations and emergency department visits
related to opioid poisoning in 2016
In 2024, a bartender named Tanaz Polson was forced to use her Narcan (that she started to carry with her after observing several previous overdoses on Public Transportation) on a man who overdosed on her Max. After giving several doses, the man ultimately passed away.
The driver had originally urged the woman to wait for Emergency Services to arrive, but the brave women defied this and made an effort to save his life. Later, she described this ordeal as “traumatizing.” She believes that
“If we treated addiction like we treated any other disease, cancer, diabetes- everybody would carry Narcan. The fact that drivers don’t carry it, security guards don’t carry it, is huge. Had that security guard done something, had they alerted somebody, had they administered themselves, maybe we wouldn’t be talking about a guy that died.”
Narcan would save lives.
Narcan would save lives.