Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Ringa. And with that members, please cast your votes to receive and follow the report. And thank you to all those that came out I know that are going to be look obviously are looking forward to public works addressing this issue as well. And we're moving on now to item 21, please.
Speaker 1: Communication from Councilwoman Price, Councilmember Supernova Vice Mayor Andrews Councilman Austin Recommendation Request City Manager to provide a report within 90 days on drug use, addiction, overdose and death statistics in Long Beach over the past five years.
Speaker 0: Councilman Price.
Speaker 2: You know, this is really a follow up item to one that I brought in October of 2017, asking the city to get a little bit more involved in our judicious opioid prescribing campaign that reaches out proactively to medical health professionals in regards to judicious prescriptions of opioids. Additionally, one of the things that we had really asked for in 2017 was that the city's website and other information clearly indicate certain information connected to opioid addiction and opioid abuse. And and so I've had an opportunity to to look at some of the follow up work that's been done and really would like to see us continue to make this a priority and make education and outreach in this regards a priority. And while I understand that our situation here in the city of Long Beach is not as bad as other places, I really don't think that's the standard that we should be basing our efforts and our progress on. I know that as a council member in the third district, I have met with many families who are dealing with a very difficult situation of having children addicted to opioids. From there, we're seeing a lot of people continue that addiction and it leading to an addiction to heroin. We've seen more overdoses in the city of Long Beach than we should for a county of our size and a city of our size. And so I'm hoping that we are going to continue to stay proactive in regards to what our efforts are. The other thing that I wanted to highlight is that one of the items that we brought to public safety a few years ago was that I wanted all of our police officers to be equipped with Narcan so that they could reverse the effects of an overdose. And so to the extent that it's not included in this study that's going to come back, I would like an update from that in terms of where we are with that, because my understanding is that where all of our first responders are not equipped with Narcan at the present time. There was a list of nine proposals that came back as a result of our October 17th to October 2017 item. And I want to find out which of those have been implemented and which of those our health department continues to pursue in looking through the Health Department website. I think we could do a much better job of mentioning our efforts to address the issues around addiction and specifically around opioids, prescriptions or illegal drugs and the issues that we're currently facing with fentanyl being found in multiple substances that are being used. We know that nationally it's killing 70,000 people a year and this is more deaths than we saw during the height of the HIV crisis. So I hope that this request for additional data can give us, as a city, adequate information so that we can develop a comprehensive approach to this issue and take into account the reality that we have here in Long Beach. As we've often said, we're a very diverse city, and while heroin may not be heroin or opioid addiction may not be an issue in some parts of the city, it may be an issue in other parts of the city. I know that regionally there is a real focus to try to be proactive on this issue in terms of prescription drug use, because for many people, that's where the addiction starts. So I ask my colleagues to support this item, and I look forward to receiving the report so that we can lay out a plan as a council in terms of how we want to make sure that we approach this issue and not have any more overdoses in our city related to heroin, or at least minimize the occurrence of such.
Speaker 7: Yes. I want to thank counsel. Thanks for bringing this item forward, because I think that it is very vital that we use M.E. as much as that of possible when we create a policy, you know, a public policy. And I want to thank my colleagues, you know, Mrs. Price, for this. And she has my whole life support on this because I think it's so important that we all get all the information that needs possible, because you guys have seen the situation, you're seeing the affect of it. So please give with this and make sure that we save lives with it. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilor Pearce.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I want to thank my council colleagues for bringing this item back. I remember when it was in front of us the first time. As I mentioned earlier, my one mother passed from domestic violence and my adopted mother from opioid overdose suicide. So this is an item that's really important to me. I think the opioid crisis is something that we have to continue to talk about. But I understand that here in the city of Long Beach, we also have heroin and other high numbers. And so I look forward to seeing those numbers included in the report back. I know I spoke with Kelly and asked her to do that for us. I also know that we trying to do, you know, at least at Bixby Park, we're in the process of trying to to purchase boxes to allow for needles to be put in there when we clean our park. It is horrendous the number of needles that we see. And in our playground area, I know that there are some cases where there's a medical. Box where you can put your prescription drugs. And I know that that is something that we are trying to get to. I just want to publicly say that that's something I definitely support in the city of Long Beach. I know that not all the companies that provide the needle boxes do the same thing with prescription drugs. But as somebody who grew up with a lot of prescription drugs in her home, I know that that often is a place where youth and kids can kind of get their hands on things at an early age. So I hope that we can include that in the report back as well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 0: Council Member Council Um, Price.
Speaker 2: Just on that note, I, I think it's great for the Health Department to come back with information regarding needle disposal boxes. I am not supportive of having those in the city, but we can have that discussion another day. But I do think it's very relevant in light of some of the topics that we've been talking about as a council that were finding needles in the park where children play, which is why I think we need to be very vigilant about the activities that are taking place in the park, under which hours activities are taking place in the park because of the public health concerns. So, you know, I think it's that's a bigger discussion. And I agree with council member Pierce. I think we should see that information in the report back so that we can know what our options are. But I do want to highlight that this particular report is focused on what we can do as a city to prevent drug use, to prevent addiction and to prevent overdose. And so I'd like to know the options of needle exchange programs. I'm not sure that that particular issue prevents drug use. It allows for safe drug use, but that's not really the scope of this item. So I just want to make sure that that I'm clear that I would love to have that discussion. But the goal of this item is to get people to not use heroin. So thank you.
Speaker 0: Mr.. Good for public comment.
Speaker 3: Very briefly handle this the way you would handle a disease tree, as I referenced earlier. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Please cast your votes.
Recommendation to request City Manager to provide a report within 90 days on drug use, addiction, overdose, and death statistics in Long Beach over the past 5 years, as well as the City's approach to this.