San Jose fire to resume drug oversight program after tampering

San Jose leaders are temporarily reinstating a drug oversight program they scrapped while firefighter medics internally flagged narcotics thefts and patient exposure to tampered morphine.

The City Council on Tuesday approved the revival of San Jose’s paramedic coordinator program, known as Med 30, with new funding for seven months — starting in December — as part of the budget vote. It will cost $748,000, according to the budget memo. The program had various responsibilities for ensuring timely medical care during fire emergencies, including investigating discrepancies in the fire department’s narcotics inventory.

Officials this week acknowledged the importance of the program, which was eliminated in 2024 before revelations about rampant firefighter drug thefts. But some councilmembers said they can’t risk committing ongoing funds while facing a $35 million shortfall. Officials will reevaluate the program at the end of the seven-month period.

“Med 30 is important, but to tie additional funding into funds we have not received yet — and are only guesstimating — will put our budget at risk,” District 9 Councilmember Pam Foley said before the vote.

District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan — a firefighter who previously spoke out against Med 30’s elimination — called for its reinstatement in a budget memo he wrote with colleagues Pamela Campos, George Casey and Michael Mulcahy.

Doan credits the city’s firefighter union for locating the needed money, which would come out of revenues from the new first responder fees the city council approved in March.

“This will save lives,” he told San José Spotlight. “Our fire union, Local 230, helped identify a permanent funding source worth an estimated $4 million in additional annual revenue through the existing transport recovery fee. However, I was concerned that city administration appeared hesitant to trust the union’s data. There is still more work ahead, and I will continue to lead efforts and build strong partnerships to make Med 30 a permanent part of our emergency response system.”

Councilmembers also approved funding for 14 new sworn staff for the new Fire Engine 32, as well as money to modernize the department’s narcotics storage systems.

“The department looks forward to implementing these critical resources that will improve our service delivery and community safety,” Fire Chief Robert Sapien told San José Spotlight.

City leaders approved Sapien’s request to cut the Med 30 program in 2023, a few months before firefighters began raising alarms about narcotics discrepancies at their fire stations — and reported giving patients morphine from tampered vials. However, the Med 30 cut didn’t take effect until the following year.

The public didn’t learn about the fire department’s narcotics theft crisis until this past April, when the city announced the arrest of a fire captain suspected of stealing paramedic narcotics across as many as 17 fire stations. The city did not disclose firefighters’ 2023 reports about patient exposure until San Jose Spotlight obtained and published them last month.

Following the emails’ publication, Santa Clara County’s emergency medical services chief blasted Sapien for sitting on those warnings and not making his agency aware of them when they were received. The county official also raised concerns that the San Jose Fire Department violated federal law.

“I would like to be very clear: eliminating Med 30 did not result in decreased oversight,” Sapien told San José Spotlight. “In fact, controlled substance inventory is now managed by the Emergency Medical Services Continuous Quality Improvement Fire Captain, which is the same fire captain that was formerly assigned to Med 30 and whose expertise provides consistency and continuity in this area.”

Sapien said additional controls have already been put in place to strengthen drug oversight.

“And more will be implemented to address the security of controlled substances once they are assigned to a fire company,” he said.
Jerry May, president of San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230, publicly urged against Med 30’s elimination for years. When the drug theft scandal went public, he tied it back to the program cut. He lauded the council’s decision to reinstate it — even if only temporarily.

“We’re really excited to reimplement this critical resource and program for firefighters in our community and looking forward to collaborating with the council and city manager’s office to find funding in the future,” May told San José Spotlight. “I think it will prove its value in those seven months and there’s a reason that position has been part of our organization for 20 years.”

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.