NARCAN spray saves another life
Opioid-laced edible marijuana may be culprit
In 2018, the California Opioid Overdose Surveillance Dashboard reported Mendocino County as ranking, per capita, third in all opioid overdose deaths. In 2019, Mendocino County moved down to number five on the list, while Lake County held the number one slot.
Since being issued NARCAN nasal spray in April 2019, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office ( MCSO) has used it to prevent six opioid overdoses so far. According to MCSO Sheriff Matthew Kendall, six lives have been saved thanks to the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health Department providing the NARCAN units to MCSO free of charge as part of a statewide grant.
In the most recent incident, MCSO responded to a request for an agency assist from the Ukiah Police Department (UPD) at ap
proximately 4:47 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15. The report was of an unresponsive man located at an apartment complex in the 700 block of South State Street in Ukiah. Because UPD Officers were busy on other calls and unable to immediately respond, they put the call out for assistance.
“A Sheriff’s Sergeant responded to the apartment complex and arrived prior to medical personnel who had also been dispatched to the location. Upon arrival, the Sheriff ’s Sergeant located an unresponsive 21 year- old male laying in the apartment complex’s carport,” said the press release.
The MCSO Sergeant performed a medical assessment and notice the man had a faint pulse and did not respond to pain. “Based upon the Sheriff ’s Sergeant’s training/experience, he feared the adult male was suffering from an opioid overdose, which if gone immediately untreated could result in death.” Just as a UPD Officer arrived at the location, the Sergeant gave the man a 4MG dose of NARCAN. “The dose appeared to be ineffective so the Sheriff’s Sergeant administered a second 4MG dose of NARCAN, which after a short time appeared to have a positive effect on the adult male’s condition.”
The man responded to the second dose and was being examined by medical personnel who had arrived at the residence, when the man refused further assistance, and left the scene after telling law enforcement personnel that “he had ingested edible marijuana/ cannabis prior to having the medical emergency and denied any opioid use.”
According to MCSO, based on the details of the medical emergency and the effectiveness of the NARCAN, the man may have ingested edibles that were laced with an opioid substance.
Narcan nasal spray is now widely known to reverse opioid overdose in adults and children. NARCAN is the common name of main ingredient Naloxone Hydrochloride, which is responsible for blocking and reversing the life-threatening effects of opioid overdose in both medications and illegal narcotics. Access to NARCAN is now considered vital in the United States according to The Center for Disease Control.
According to the MCSO press release, “The ( NARCAN) antidote can reverse the effects of an overdose for up to an hour, but anyone who administers the overdose reversal medication in a non-medical setting is advised to seek emergency medical help right away. The spray units can also be used by Public Safety Professionals who are unknowingly or accidentally exposed to potentially fatal amounts of fentanyl from skin absorption or inhalation… The issuance of the Narcan nasal units, thus far, have been to employees assigned to the Field Services Division and the Mendocino County Jail medical staff. Employees are required to attend user training prior to being issued the medication.”