Efforts expand to decrease drug overdose deaths
Starting this March, the Washington County Drug and Alcohol Commission will begin holding monthly community training sessions to educate Washington residents about the life-saving drug, Narcan.
After having already supplied the substance to first responders last year, the Commission is holding the training sessions to work even further toward a decrease in deaths by drug overdose.
Narcan (naloxone hydrochloride), according to a press release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2015, has been shown to stop or reverse drug overdoses resulting from opioid use within minutes.
Available both in injection and nasal spray forms, the drug has saved the lives of many people who overdosed on heroin, oxycodone or other narcotics.
The Commission has been supplying Narcan kits to Washington first responders since spring of 2015.
Since then, according to Cheryl Andrews, executive director at the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission, 36 of the kits have saved lives.
Community members have had access to the drug since November of 2014, when physicians were approved to write a prescription to a third party – someone who is not a drug addict but is a family member. However, Andrews said many family doctors weren’t well educated about how to prescribe the drug.
Now, the Commission is taking action to provide easier access to Narcan for members of the community who want to be prepared to care for loved ones at risk for drug overdoses.
“This epidemic affects everyone,” said Andrews. “[In the case of an overdose,] you do call 911; but for family members who live this nightmare day in and day out, they have some reassurance that they have the ability to take care of their loved one until the ambulance would arrive.”
Andrews said the community training addresses more than just how to administer the drug to someone who has overdosed – it also tackles the widespread drug problem in Pennsylvania and what the community can do to stop it.
“Our training is designed to tell people about how we need to reduce the stigma,” said Andrews. “We need to start talking about it, and it needs to be okay for people to reach out if they’re addicted.”
According to the FDA, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States.
Based on statistical reports from the Washington County Office of the Coroner, this trend is extremely evident in Western Pennsylvania. The office’s website shows that there has been a steady increase in heroin-related deaths in Washington since 2009.The coroner’s report also shows 73 deaths by drug overdose in Washington in 2015.
Thirty-eight of those were caused by heroin, with or without other drugs.
“[That’s] 73 too many,” said Andrews. “Our goal actually is that we would have zero overdoses.”
While Andrews could not speak to whether other Western Pennsylvania counties are distributing Narcan in the same way as Washington, she said there is most definitely a connection to surrounding counties, including Greene County, in terms of the distribution and sale of drugs.
Given the prevalence of illegal drug use and overdoses in the region, Andrews emphasized that everyone from law enforcement to first responders must work together for the prevention of drug addiction and the care of those who are addicted.
“We can’t arrest our way out of this. We’ve got to administer treatment,” said Andrews. “Everybody is really putting their expertise out there and saying, ‘how can we collectively resolve this issue?’ In isolation, none of us are solving it. So, we have to all be part of the solution. Thank goodness Narcan is one piece of that.”