San Antonio City Council to Vote on Declaring Overdose Crisis a Public Health Emergency

The City Council will vote on a major resolution this Thursday as San Antonio struggles with an increase in overdose deaths. In order to change the city’s approach to dealing with this expanding pandemic, the Council will determine whether to formally declare overdoses a public health emergency.

Since June 2023, Councilmember Teri Castillo of District 5 has been actively seeking to address the matter aggressively, and her Council Consideration Request (CCR) sparked the resolution. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of drug-related deaths nationwide increased by a startling 57 percent, including 5,688 Texans and 469 Bexar County citizens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Additionally, according to the CDC, drug overdoses claimed the lives of over 2,000 Americans each week in 2023, including nine residents of Bexar County.

Councilmember Castillo stated, “This resolution recognizes overdose deaths as preventable tragedies that impact all of us,” according to the official website of the City of San Antonio. She emphasized that “immediate and sustained action is urgently needed to protect the health and wellbeing of our community.” The council member underlined the city’s support for harm-reducing, life-saving measures and its sympathy with individuals impacted by substance use.

The proposed CCR seeks to implement a comprehensive plan in addition to declaring a public health emergency in light of this problem. The budget plan that the city creates would give harm reduction initiatives financed by opioid settlement money first priority. Additionally, it aims to potentially increase availability to the life-saving antidote naloxone (Narcan) and provide training for its usage to employees in city departments that interact with the public as well as community-based non-profits. The resolution also urges the creation of a city-funded program to assist expectant moms and new mothers who are battling opiate addiction.

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