• Home
  • Our Editors

The Alchemist

Brenau University's Student Newspaper

  • News
  • Arts/Entertainment
  • Campus Life
  • Opinion/Editorials
  • Sports

The Most Controversial Bathroom in NYC

November 13, 2017 By Makena Sheahan Leave a Comment

Mata’s bathroom is located in an infirmary called the Corner Project, which is a syringe exchange program that began operating in the New York neighborhood of Washington Heights. Someone checks on the intercom in the bathroom every three minutes to make sure the user is still conscious. If the user doesn’t respond, Mata or someone similarly trained, will press a button to unlock the door and rush in, armed with a syringe full of naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, and hopefully reverse the effects of the opioid drugs. So far, there have been 25 overdoses in the bathroom, but each live has been saved thanks to Mata, his staff, and Narcan.

 

Some belief  that his staff could just close the bathroom to public use, or search the people trying to use the facility, but they chose to do nether. In this case, is that a good or bad thing?

It’s a good thing. Mata knows that if they turn away people who are going to use their facility for drug use then they will find somewhere else to go. Mata likes to know that the people coming are safe, and so far, Narcan has been successful when it’s been used to treat overdoses.

 

We find ourselves in the middle of an opioid epidemic that is the worst drug crisis in American history. It is a self-inflicted wound and one that is predominantly made in America, as we consume more than 80% of the world’s supply of opioid pain pills, even though we are less than 5% of the world’s population. Many of those prescriptions have led to heroin use; three out of four new heroin users started with prescription narcotics.

Filed Under: Opinion/Editorial

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About US

We take special pride in The Alchemist. The student ran newspaper was the first publication distributed on the campus of Brenau University. The Alchemist went viral in Fall 2006. It has been over 100 years since the first article was printed, and has since evolved into the prominent platform for students to leave a legacy through their writing.

Recent Posts

  • Can We Feel Confident that Brenau University is Taking the Necessary Requirements to Keep us Safe from the Pandemic?
  • Move over, cause K-pop is taking over
  • What Students Really Think About Graduation
  • Poem: Soppy
  • Coronavirus Unveiling Deeply Rooted Racism

Login

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Archives

Calendar

November 2017
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Oct   Jan »

Copyright © 2023 · Brenau University Alchemist