The drugs supress the respiratory system, so people can die because they stop breathing, but the symptoms of an overdose can be reversed by taking an antidote called naloxone.

The slight drop is partially accredited to the community distribution of naloxone, a medicine used to reverse the effects of opioids and stabilize breathing.

In addition to taking lifesaving measures — including giving the men the overdose-reversing drug naloxone — deputies requested help from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Fire Department’s Station 11 — one of the busiest in the nation, partly because of overdose calls — and watched as paramedics pushed naloxone, an opioid overdose drug, through an IV line and revived him.

First developed as painkillers by the Swiss company Ciba Pharmaceuticals in the 50s, nitazenes are synthetic opioids roughly as potent as fentanyl but sometimes demanding more naloxone to revive from an overdose.