Tina Wolf demonstrates the use of naloxone to community members in Lindenhurst, N.Y., during an overdose prevention training. Georgia Dolan-Reilly (left) of the Suffolk County Prevention Resource Center helped with the training.
Kevin Hagen for NPR

When Priscilla Graham-Farmer went to get her hair done in Newark, N.J., recently, she noticed the elevator in the building was broken, so she took the stairs. And that’s when Graham-Farmer saw him: a young guy sprawled out, not breathing.

“He was literally turning blue,” she says. “And everybody was walking over him.”

But Graham-Farmer stopped. And looked closer. She saw that he had a needle and some cotton balls. The guy had clearly overdosed.

“I’m screaming in the hallway,” Graham-Farmer remembers. “Nobody’s answering.” Click here for the rest of the story…