Is Your Local Coffee Shop a Low-Key Opioid Clinic?
Overdoses in public bathrooms are turning baristas and other service workers into unwitting first responders.
People searching for places to use opioids often rely on public bathrooms. This has been an issue in hospitals; at least eight people overdosed in Massachusetts General Hospital in about a year. But it’s not just hospitals. People also overdose in the easily accessible restrooms of popular businesses. In May, a man in Illinois died of a suspected overdose in a Starbucks. Last month, a pregnant woman in Ohio overdosed—and gave birth—in a Burger King.
At these places, employees are often among the first to encounter those who have overdosed. A staff member at a library may leave her post at a circulation desk for a bathroom break and notice someone
