NALOXONE( NARCAN) PROGRAM
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in deaths resulting from heroin and prescription opioids. This epidemic has spread across Pennsylvania as currently one in four families struggle with a substance abuse problem. In 2014, 2,488 overdose deaths occurred in Pennsylvania, ranging in age from four months to 85 years of age, as reported by Pennsylvania County Coroners Association. This does not include many other related deaths from accidents, diseases, medical complications and suicides. Among people 25 to 64 years old, drug overdose causes more deaths than motor vehicle traffic crashes. The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs( DDAP) is working to help reverse these horrifying trends and help our citizens who struggle with addiction. The enactment of ACT 139 provides first responders, friends and families access to an opioid overdose reversal medicine that will save lives and hopefully lead an individual toward the substance abuse treatment they need.
The Shaler Township Police Department began using the life‐saving drug Naloxone in early August 2016. Naloxone( also known as Narcan or Evzio) is a medication that can reverse an overdose that is caused by an opioid drug( i. e. prescription pain medication or heroin). When administered during an overdose, naloxone blocks the effects of opioids on the brain and restores breathing within two to eight minutes. Naloxone has been used safely by emergency medical professionals for more than 40 years and has only one function: to reverse the effects of opioids on the brain and respiratory system in order to prevent death. Naloxone has no potential for abuse.
Through the‘ Good Samaritan’ provision of Act 139, friends, loved ones and bystanders are encouraged to call 911 for emergency medical services in the event an overdose is witnessed
and to stay with the individual until help arrives. The provision offers certain criminal and civil protections to the caller that they cannot get in trouble for being present, witnessing and reporting an overdose.
Concern about liability should not deter anyone from using naloxone to save a life. To the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs knowledge, there have been no known law suits from the use of naloxone.
Reference: http:// www. ddap. pa. gov / overdose / Pages / Naloxone _ Reversal. aspx
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