Naloxone is saving hundreds of NC overdose victims
The North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition is a nonprofit that operates out of Durham with, director Robert Childs says, the goal of “getting people to call 911.” The group reaches out to advocate for awareness about HIV and various types of addiction, but one of its main objectives now is to encourage those who find someone unconscious from a possible drug overdose to call hospitals or law enforcement quickly.
Why wouldn’t someone do that? For fear of being arrested and prosecuted themselves because they were around illegal drugs.
That, Childs said, should be the opposite reaction, and thanks to what his organization and other advocates have done, the North Carolina General Assembly has, with bipartisan support, passed “good Samaritan” laws that make it possible for people to call for help without a threat of prosecution. They can be arrested by law enforcement, but not prosecuted.
“You go over to someone’s house and find them unresponsive,” Childs says, “and this protects you from prosecution if small amounts of drugs are present.”
The law isn’t designed to protect drug dealers, in other words.
Also encouraged by Child’s organization, NCHRC, is the use of naloxone, a “miracle drug” as characterized by the group, which can reverse the effects of overdose.
The drug is available for virtually everyone, Childs says, through his organization under something called a standing order, which is flu shot-like “prescription” that doesn’t necessarily require someone to go to a doctor’s office.
Police departments use the drug when they come upon a likely overdose.
The results are staggeringly good. The NCHRC has gotten reports of 600 reversals of overdoses using the drug. The group tracks successes and has reports from police departments where people were found unconscious and were awakened after getting a dose of naloxone.
“It’s been around since the ‘70s,” Childs says. Many law enforcement agencies supply officers and deputies with naloxone, which, Childs emphasizes, does not “encourage” drug use by bringing people easily out of overdoses, which might encourage some to continue using. Naloxone will in fact make drug addicts sick with withdrawal.
“No one,” Childs said, “would want to take it.”
His group is in the process of promoting the use of naloxone, with training, for overdoses and indications are it is gaining widespread acceptance. Indications that heroin is being used more, and it’s of course a horribly addictive drug, are stepping up interest in naloxone.
It’s called a “miracle drug” because those who have used it to help people have seen people come back almost from the point of death, a point drug users reach all too often.
Responsible laws that encourage people to help others without fear of going to jail themselves have helped, and Childs is emphatic that the laws in North Carolina have been ground-breaking and that other states have used them as models. He also notes that the support for them has been overwhelmingly bipartisan and at times unanimous.
Just since January of this year, police officers in North Carolina have reversed nine overdoses in people in Guilford County, Fayetteville, Carrboro, Greenville and elsewhere.
“Our point simply is to reduce mortality from drug overdose,” Childs said. “We want to encourage people to call 911.” NCHRC gets support from foundations and others for its outreach efforts, and it helps supply people with naloxone. The organization’s number is 336-543-8050. Its website is at http//www.nchrc.org.
This story was originally published July 5, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Naloxone is saving hundreds of NC overdose victims."