SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Nate Smiddy has saved hundreds of lives.
No, Smiddy is not an EMT, a doctor, a firefighter, or a police officer, Smiddy walks into homeless encampments, visits parents of opioid-addicted teens to distribute doses of Naloxone and Narcan spray, used to revive those who have overdosed from fentanyl and other opioids.
He works with San Diego non-profit, A New PATH, the county's chief distributor of Naloxone and Narcan spray, whose goal is to prevent overdoses from opioids as well as educate those on the dangers of fentanyl and other opioids.
The non-profit's work is cut out for them.
Since 2019, San Diego has emerged as ground zero in the fentanyl crisis. According to a statement from San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria to The Economist, nearly half of all fentanyl seized by Customs and Border Patrol was confiscated at San Diego's border.
A Different Approach to Preventing Deaths
As local, state, and federal law enforcement is focused on arrests and confiscations as a deterrent, Smiddy and the non-profit that he works for is on a different path, one to educate and prevent deaths by distributing Narcan Nasal Spray and Naloxone as well as handing out testing strips that allow drug users to test their drugs to ensure that no unwanted fentanyl is present.
On July 12, A New PATH's Nate Smiddy stands behind a foldout table at a homeless outreach event at an Oceanside church.
A handful of people came to the table to grab a box of the potentially-life saving nasal spray.
"From my experience, this is what saves lives - this is what gives people the help they need when they want it," said the 30-year-old Smiddy.
Through A New PATH, Smiddy travels across North San Diego County more than five days a week. He walks into canyons where massive homeless encampments are and offers to resupply anyone who used the Narcan or Naloxone injections. He goes to the homes of those who are planning to use opioids to test them to ensure that they are safe.
Two weeks ago, days after learning that his best friend overdosed from opioids, Smiddy says he helped a man who was overdosing. Smiddy ran over and administered doses of Narcan.
"I hit him with a dose, laid him down. I had to hit him with another dose and he started showing color again," said Smiddy.
While rewarding, Smiddy says the heaviness can be overwhelming.
"I’ve brought people back to life and they’re breathing again. I’ve tested drugs before that presented as fentanyl and the person wasn’t a fentanyl user, so they didn’t use that drug that could have potentially killed them. But it doesn't take long for me to be reminded of the larger problem, and people's misconception that we can keep doing what we’ve been doing and that it’s gonna stop."
When not working with A New PATH, Smiddy has his own business working with the music industry and music artists to try and get Narcan at music venues and at clubs.
San Diego's Fentanyl Crisis
From July 1, 2022 through June 30 of this year, Customs and Border Patrol agents have confiscated 7,755 pounds of Fentanyl along San Diego's border with Mexico, nearly 1,000 pounds more than the previous year and 6,156 pounds more than in 2019.
The stream of fentanyl into San Diego now stretches countywide and is seen inside homeless encampments to two-story homes in quiet and wealthy suburbs and at public schools.
Accidental deaths from fentanyl since 2018 have increased nearly tenfold since 2018 with 86 overdoses reported in 2018 to a five year high of 802 in 2021.
But for Nate Smiddy, it always comes back to a heaviness that follows him nearly each and every day.
"I try to keep myself busy, skating, working out, hiking but it always is there with me. I mean watching someone die is not necessarily a good experience especially when you’ve lost people."