Homeless people fight to save lives, and stay alive, as LA's fentanyl crisis worsens

LOS ANGELES — Next to a row of tents covered with blue tarps on Skid Row, Jasmine Paredes watched a friend scribble a message on a lamppost with a pink Sharpie: L.A. — Fenty is #1 killa — may God help us all.

Paredes had recently lost two friends to fentanyl overdoses. She prevented a third death by performing CPR and administering Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of opioids — one of nearly a dozen times she has brought someone back from the brink, she said.

She doesn't use fentanyl herself, she said. But a few days ago, she took a hit from a glass pipe she thought was filled with meth that instead turned out to be the much more powerful drug.

"As soon as I exhaled, everything got really slow and dreamy," said Paredes, 36, who lives in a tent in the flower district. "I was unconscious for two days. I later crawled across the street to my friend's tent and slept for another two days."

Here and in other homeless encampments around Los Angeles, life-and-death