Earlier this week, Stephen Murray got a call on the Massachusetts Overdose Prevention Helpline, where responders stay on the phone with people using drugs in case they overdose so they can call emergency services. Murray asked the caller questions to try to gauge their responsiveness, but over the span of about 15 minutes, he lost the conversation and heard their breathing become short and infrequent on the line.
"It got to the point where I was like, 'Okay, I have to call now because I can't verify this is sustainable with life,'" Murray told Salon in a phone interview.
