"Fire Stations Open Doors to Addicts" Zoe Kurtzer

The amount of fatal drug overdoses in New Hampshire has more than doubled from the amount in 2014. One city in New Hampshire, Manchester, is attempting to decrease that number by opening their fire stations to the public. Addicts will receive immediate medical care, including a quick consultation from firefighter(s), and if needed a ride to the hospital for more advanced care. This program is called The Safe Station program. The main point of this article is to inform how one city has attempted to decrease fatality from drug related activities, by opening their fire stations and providing immediate care to those who need it. Emphasis on the importance of letting their population know that help is accessible, will decrease the amount of death not only related to drug usage, but to other health problems. I agree with this article to an extent. In New Hampshire, drug related activities is at an all time high, killing their population at an increasing rate. If this program is effective in that the rate of fatality has decreased, then this program is definitely worth adopting in that city. Despite that, there are flaws that need to be fixed in order to have this program to be possible in the future. According to the article, a majority of the firefighters working in the Manchester fire stations react to the walk in patient. Not only is this inefficient for the firefighters to focus their energy and time on this patient, but will also get expensive. The cost alone to support the nonprofit groups helping the addicts, is $300,000 (not including resources stations use). Smaller cities do not have enough staffed firefighters to focus the needed energy on walk in patients. People will eventually start abusing this program, they will get lazy and know they can rely on this program whenever they want a medical checkup, which will result in even more issues for the city in the long run. This article needs to provide statistical evidence, showing a decrease in the fatality rate among drug addicts. The last thing I would add would be legitimate solutions to the counterarguments voiced in the article, adding much needed credibility to The Safe Station program. This will allow the reader to fully judge the positive and negative aspects of The Safe Station program, and efficiently apply this idea or other similar ideas to their community.

Original Article - http://www.wsj.com/articles/fire-stations-open-their-doors-to-addicts-1472581170