App aims to focus on drug education

An app launched this week by the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership aims to educate people about overdoses and provide resources for those suffering from drug addiction.

The ReviveAR app, available in the Apple and Google app stores, can teach app users how to properly identify a drug overdose and to administer Narcan as an emergency treatment, a news release states.

It also allows app users to access overdose prevention resources and find recovery and family support programs and alerts them to drug take-back locations across the state.

In Pulaski County alone, 45 people died of opioid-related overdoses in the first half of 2023, the release states.

“The number of drug overdose deaths are rising at a rapid rate in Arkansas, and opioid overdoses account for more than half of them,” said Kirk Lane, director of the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership, in the release. “Our priority has always been the health and wellbeing of Arkansans, and this innovative solution marks a significant step forward in our efforts to combat the opioid crisis and save lives.”

The Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership was formed in 2022 by the Arkansas Municipal League and the Association of Arkansas Counties.

It oversees the spending of money awarded to Arkansas as part of prescription opiate litigation in cities and counties throughout the state. The organization’s goal is to limit the loss of life caused by the effects on Arkansans of the opioid epidemic.

Lane served as Arkansas drug director under former Gov. Asa Hutchinson before resigning in 2022 to join the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.