Area county OK’d to mail naloxone kits
NEWARK — Licking County officials have secured permission from the state to offer online training on the use of naloxone and mailed supplies of the medication that reverses opioid overdoses to get it into the hands of more people directly affected by drug addiction.
The Licking County Health Department will begin the first-of-itskind effort in January as part of a program that provides naloxone kits to residents who want to have supplies on hand in case of emergency.
“Really, what it’s going to do is reduce the stigma as well as being more convenient, of course,” department spokeswoman Olivia Biggs said. “Hopefully, this will get more to the people who really want to save someone’s life."
Licking County received funding a couple of years ago through a state program to buy and distribute naloxone — which is sold as Narcan or under other brand names — to counter overdose deaths.
Sixty-eight people in the county have died of overdoses since 2015, including 26 this year. That 2017 total is expected to top 30, Biggs said.
Law-enforcement officers and other emergency responders are
already carrying naloxone, and state officials have credited the medication with preventing Ohio’s record overdose death tolls from rising even higher.
A change in state law also allows anyone to buy naloxone without a prescription. With the state grant, the Licking County Health Department bought about 350 naloxone kits; each contains two doses of the medication, which is enough to help stabilize someone who is overdosing until emergency responders arrive.
Health officials trained 388 people on naloxone use: The medication is squirted into the nostrils using a needle-less syringe. Many of those who have received training work in public agencies or restaurants.
“Nowadays, people are frightened that they’re going to accidentally overdose, so if they’re going to go shoot up something, they’ll often go to a bathroom in a restaurant because they know if something goes wrong, they’re much more likely to be found,” said Mary Beth Hagstad, who heads the training sessions as nursing manager for the Licking County Health Department.
The county still has for distribution about 30 of the naloxone kits bought earlier with state funds, and the health department is seeking additional funding to buy several hundred more.
Officials hope to get them into the hands of family members, friends and others with direct connections to drug users, which is where the new online training initiative comes into the picture. Biggs said the health department received permission from the state pharmacy board to enable residents to complete naloxone training online, then receive kits in the mail. Previously, the training and distribution were completed in person. Licking County is the first county in the state to pursue its own directmail program.
Biggs and Hagstad acknowledged that there are strong opinions about naloxone. The Licking County program prompted negative comments from people opposed to using public funding for a medication that some view as accommodating drug use.
“I think the bottom line is, this is an addiction,” Hagstad said. “What if it was your child? Wouldn’t you want somebody to do anything in their power
to save their life?”
Nate Strum, executive director of GROW Licking County, the area’s primary economic-development agency, completed the health-department training and obtained a naloxone kit, which he takes to events.
His decision also has a personal side: Strum’s father is an addict.
“People forget that there are parents and children and aunts and uncles" affected by addiction, he said. “We can’t pick winners and losers when there are resources available to save lives and to give them second chances. I did this because I couldn’t think of picking someone’s father or brother or sister and saying, ‘I can’t help you today.’”
And by the way, don’t leave that naloxone kit in your car. Hagstad said the medication needs to be stored at room temperature.
“You have to just keep it on your person,” she said.