SAN JOSE OFFICIALS have quietly killed a firefighter drug oversight program just days after reinstating it. This comes after a paramedic drug theft scandal exposed patients to tampered narcotics and sparked backlash against funding cuts that originally dissolved the initiative.
The program known as Med 30 was deactivated on Dec. 21, the same month it was supposed to be reinstated, according to a San Jose Fire Department bulletin obtained by San José Spotlight. The decision — made by City Manager Jennifer Maguire and Fire Chief Robert Sapien — directly contradicts a City Council vote in June to restore Med 30 for seven months starting in December.
Officials revived the program after this news outlet revealed officials knew about firefighter narcotics thefts and tampering for longer than was publicly let on — and never told the public about internal reports of patients receiving drugs from damaged paramedic vials.
“Just one year after the Palisades and Eden fires (in Southern California) — when elected officials and the city manager stood in our fire stations and thanked firefighters for holding the line — this same administration has chosen to eliminate a critical, lifesaving resource that firefighters have repeatedly said we need,” Jerry May, president of the city firefighters union, told San José Spotlight.
Maguire’s office — which responded to questions from this news outlet on behalf of Chief Sapien — said she’ll ask councilmembers to sign off on the deactivation of Med 30 during the city’s mid-year budget review in February. But the decision has already taken effect without approval from councilmembers.
‘Not financially sustainable’
A spokesperson for Maguire called the firefighter oversight program fiscally unsustainable.
“The city manager has taken necessary steps to address anticipated revenue shortfalls in FY 2025–2026, including recommending the suspension of the Med 30 program,” spokesperson Carolina Camarena told San José Spotlight. “Med 30 was authorized on a one-time basis and is not financially sustainable given current fiscal constraints.”
It’s the same argument Sapien made when he originally requested the dissolution of Med 30 in 2023. Councilmembers approved that request, which didn’t take effect until 2024. But in late 2023, firefighters began raising alarms about narcotics discrepancies at fire stations — and reported giving patients morphine from tampered vials.
“Just one year after the Palisades and Eden fires (in Southern California) … this same administration has chosen to eliminate a critical, lifesaving resource that firefighters have repeatedly said we need.”
Jerry May, firefighters union president
The public didn’t learn about the fire department’s narcotics crisis until more than a year later, when officials last April announced the arrest of a fire captain suspected of stealing paramedic narcotics from potentially 17 fire stations. But the city at the time made no public mention of firefighters’ 2023 reports about patient exposure, until San José Spotlight obtained and published them last May.
Following publication of the emails, Santa Clara County’s emergency medical services chief blasted Sapien for sitting on those warnings and not making the county aware of them when they were received.
Sapien has previously argued eliminating Med 30 didn’t result in decreased oversight. He said controlled substance inventory duties moved to the emergency medical services continuous quality improvement fire captain, which is the same fire captain formerly assigned to Med 30 and whose expertise provides consistency and continuity in this area.
Union says safety at risk
May questions the city’s argument about Med 30’s sustainability. He said the fire department has begun implementing its controversial first responder fee, which allows the city to bill patients $427 for emergency medical care as of Jan. 1. May also notes the fire department has begun billing for ambulance transports for the first time. He said these new charges — plus a wave of expected retirements this month — open up substantial cost savings to cover the Med 30 program.
“Cutting Med 30 now, especially ahead of major global events like the Super Bowl and FIFA, puts residents, visitors and firefighters at risk,” May told San José Spotlight.
A city audit in November recommended the fire department update its policies on storage and access to paramedic drug kits, timing of inventory inspections, as well as access to biometric narcotics safes that the department plans to roll out over the next year.
District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan, a former San Jose fire captain, questions the Med 30 cut. He said the program’s reinstatement stemmed from wholesome collaboration between officials and community stakeholders. He added the obligation of public feedback extends to the city manager.
“Stakeholders need to be heard prior to the city manager making a decision like this,” he told San José Spotlight.
Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.