Heroin antidote saves lives, but doesn’t treat addiction
(Harrisburg) —Across the midstate, the commonwealth and Northeast, hundreds of people have died of heroin overdoses in the past year. But now, Pennsylvania police officers can carry a life-saving drug commonly known by its brand name – Narcan.
With a couple squirts up the nose, Narcan can reverse an overdose and bring someone back to life.
However, many are warning it’s just a first step.
Origins of the bill
Before arriving in Harrisburg in 2012, Republican state representative Joe Hackett walked the streets as a police officer in Ridley Township in Delaware County.
“I’ve been there administering CPR for drug overdoses on more than enough occasions I want to remember and it’s a shame. I’ve been right there with the needle hanging out of their arm,” he says.
So when a police chief for a Delaware County department approached Hackett with news of a new antidote to opiod overdoses, he crafted legislation to get it into officers’s hands.
“Still took too long in my opinion and we had people dying and we couldn’t move fast enough in my opinion,” he says.
Photo by AP Photo/Mel Evans
Registered Nurse Babette Richter, with the South Jersey AIDS Alliance, holds up a container of the heroin overdose antidote, naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, in Camden, N.J. in this 2014 photo.
On a windy day in late September, doctors, legislators and families surrounded Governor Corbett as he signed what’s called the Good Samaritan bill. Hackett’s provision authorizing Narcan for police officers, firefighters, families and friends ended up in the bill, which also allows users to call 911 without the fear of new criminal charges if a friend is overdosing.
A shot of the drug can literally inject life into someone overdosing on opioids like heroin or oxycontin. The state law doesn’t include any funding for the antidote, so everyone whowants it has to figure out how to pay for it.
“Well it can make a huge difference because it’s the difference between life and death. And it’s very exciting that the bill has been passed in Pennsylvania, it’s very exciting that it’s going to be more readily available,” saysAmy Sechrist, a certified prevention specialist at Lancaster’s Compass Mark, which offers education on drugs, and help for those who need it.
New Jersey, New York City and Massachusetts have already given police the ability to carry Narcan, and saved hundreds of lives in the process.
Questions arise
Make no mistake, Sechrist is overjoyed the Legislature passed and Governor Corbett signed the bill. But wait one second.
“Narcan is used for a moment. And addiction is a chronic disease, it’s a progressive fatal disease. So Narcan has an enormous role keeping someone in life and not in death, but after that moment, the person is still addicted,” she adds.
Sechrist says the real work has to start as soon as the moment passes. After Narcan enters someone’s system, the person goes into withdrawal, which could mean nausea, vomiting, and shivering – so they should get monitoring at a hospital. A stay at a detox facility should also be included.
But once the physical symptoms start to dissipate, she says, the education should start. She looks at New Jersey, where those who administer narcan also hand out pamphlets with information on treatment options in the area.
“I know that a few of those people went right back out and overdosed. But not all of them did. Every time we make a step in recognizing the importance of addiction, meaning the role that it plays in society as a major disease, it’s very exciting,” says Sechrist.
Lives lost
Photo by Ben Allen/witf
Stacy Emminger points to a picture of Anthony Perez holding his son Gage. Perez died of a heroin overdose in March.
The Narcan legislation came too late for Anthony Perez. He was living at home, going from job to job at restaurants in Mount Joy, Lancaster County, all while addicted to heroin.
One time, his mom Stacy Emminger says he was dropped off at a Turkey Hill convenience store parking lot to fend for himself. The 23 year old made it through that ordeal.
But earlier this year, he died from a heroin overdose. Emminger says she misses him every day.
“Of course if I had had it on me, I would’ve used it even though he was already cold. They used it on him. It was in his system with the autopsy,” she says.
“But in some ways its prolonging the inevitable.”
Stacy is conflicted. She had fought for years and years to get Anthony clean, kicking him out and cutting him off like many experts recommend, calling the police on him, and pushing him to try therapy programs.
She says with all of that behind her, she’s not sure anything would have changed.
“My big thing is an addict is an addict so it’s a good thing to bring them back, but it doesn’t change the behavior.”
Emmingerknows it sounds bleak. But she and her ex-husband Stephen Mercado say stop and think about what they’ve been through.
“My son is dead. Most of my life is dark. I mean, I can’t…” and Emminger stops.
Steve continues: “…the reality is it was dark to begin with. It’s hard not to think of the bad times at the same time at the same time that you’re thinking of the good times. It’s a part of reality. There’s just not much you can do about it.”
In the midst of Anthony’s addiction, Emminger and Mercado divorced — partly, they say, because of the stress his decisions added to their relationship.
Health care impact
Meanwhile, in York County the opioid overdose problem has expanded. Heroin overdose deaths this year will more than double 2013’s number.
David Vega, the chairman of emergency medicine at Wellspan York Hospital, tells the story of a 21 or 22 year old who was rescued from an overdose by ER staff using Narcan.
After he was revived, Vega tried to talk him into going into long-term treatment. He couldn’t convince him and he sees why.
“Often, patients may have to wait to be able to get into a program or there may not be funding available, some of the programs that are available are expensive and if a patient doesn’t have insurance or it’s not covered by their insurance, or there’s a large deductible, getting a patient into a program in that situation can be difficult,” he says.
Narcan is a shot at life. But Amy Sechrist says everyone needs to remember that is all it is.
“I just think it’s very important to think of this disease as not being solved by simple measures.”
Many experts say Narcan is the start of a good discussion about the fight against opioids like heroin and oxycontin.
But it’s apparent this is just a chapter in the addiction recovery book – many pages need to be written before it can be closed.
This article appeared originally on witf.org.
