A nonprofit called EndOverdose passes out Narcan during Coachella to festival goers.
As we approach weekend two of Coachella, organizations against overdoses want the community to know they are passing out and training people on how to use Narcan.
EndOverdose slogan is No one else has to die. During Coachella, their representatives train festivalgoers in groups with a practice dummy. This nonprofit will be at weekend two of Coachella.
Indio Police Department shares the incident report from weekend one, showing that Drugs/Alcohol. and Intoxication arrests were the highest.
"It's so prevalent, and it sucks," says Hayley Reno, weekend one festivalgoer. "It really sucks that fentanyl alone has become so prevalent. But that's why we're doing stuff to combat it and save lives." Reno was familiar with EndOverdose but did not know they would have a booth. She was happy to invite her friends to get trained; she was already trained in using Narcan.
A festivalgoer shared her experience with News Channel 3 on coming prepared with Narcan and Fentanyl strips. She was happy that an organization was training people to use Narcan in an emergency.
It really sucks that fentanyl alone has become so prevalent. But you know, that's why we're doing stuff to combat it and save lives."
Reno didn't know EndOverdose would be at the event, so she came to the event with testing strips and Narcan. She insisted that her friends stop by the EndOverdose booth so they, too, would be prepared.
She had her own past with drug and alcohol abuse back in 2021 and has dedicated her Instagram platform on many occasions to educating people about the resources that are out there.
"There's something about being young that makes you feel invincible; you think only old people die; nothing's ever going to actually hurt you," says Reno. "You know, the worst that might happen is you end up in the hospital, but you'll always bounce back."
"EndOverdose is a nonprofit," says Darcy Michero, the Director of Events and Fundraising Programs. "And often we work with events, both local and the community and large scale, like Coachella and a lot of electronic dance music events, just because harm reduction is, you know, really important in all large scale events just because of how many young people go."
Fentanyl test strips will be available Friday provided by DAP Health. At the Renaissance Coachella shuttle stop last weekend, DAP Health employees Manny Muro, Community Health Diagnostic testing and outreach Supervisor, and Deni Molina Oyos, Community health worker, handed fentanyl strips and Narcan.
