As part of an effort to combat sharply rising opioid overdose deaths in Wasco County, a local task force has secured 300 doses of naloxone, a nasal spray medicine that can reverse overdoses.
The opioid overdose prevention task force, started about a year ago, has twin goals: Putting naloxone (also called Narcan) into the hands of people who need it; and removing the stigma associated with opioid overdose.
Debby Jones leads the task force — which also covers Sherman County — and heads Wasco County’s alcohol and drug prevention program, YouthThink.
She secured the 300 doses — which come in 150 kits with two doses each and is worth about $10,000 — from the Save Lives Oregon Harm Reduction Supply Clearinghouse.
Naloxone is “a great tool,” Jones said. “We really want to prevent death. We have people in our community who are struggling with this disease of addiction and we can’t give up on them, we shouldn’t give up on them. And if this gives them another chance to get their lives back we want to be sure that’s available to them.”
Jones said Wasco County has had 11 fatal drug overdoses in a recent 10-month period. “If naloxone was maybe more available, maybe we wouldn’t have that,” she said. “We’ll never know, but we want to do everything we can to prevent death and promote hope and continued recovery. This gives people a second chance, and they’re worth it.
“I think there’s just a lot of misunderstandings about the disease of addiction, whether it’s nicotine, alcohol, meth, opioids, even marijuana, this is still someone’s son or daughter, mother or father,” she said.
“The other issue is that fentanyl, a very powerful and potentially deadly opioid, is flooding the market,” Jones said. “Fake pills laced with fentanyl are in our community. Heroin, meth and marijuana may also be laced with fentanyl. Most often with unregulated fentanyl, it is not a quick high but a quick, ugly death. If it’s not your own prescription from your own doctor, don’t take it.”
Oregon ranked first in the nation in the percentage of population that had used illicit drugs in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released in December 2021.
But Oregon ranked last in the country for having access to substance abuse treatment, according to the same report.
Having a naloxone supply is a start toward providing help, Jones said. “YouthThink has not always been comfortable in the ‘harm reduction’ business, which Narcan distribution technically falls under. However, preventing death so that a person has another chance at life and hope is part of our overall mission.”
The naloxone distribution plan is in its early phases, and the task force is looking for feedback from the community regarding proper and effective distribution. “It’s about $75 per dose, so we want to really be smart about how we use it and distribute it, but we want it to be used, and make sure we get it into the hands of people that need it,” she said. Jones encouraged the public to contact YouthThink at 541-506-2673 for questions or ideas regarding naloxone distribution.
“We need to do a lot more education in the community,” she said. An overdose could accidentally happen to an elderly patient taking prescription opioids. Or it could be a working professional who has become addicted to painkillers. Or it could be a teen who takes a pill offered to them at a party that turns out to be laced with fentanyl.
“We don’t want to say, certain types of people are the ones that need Narcan, and that’s not true in this day,” Jones said.
Stigma abounds when it comes to opioids. “This type of addiction is so often in the shadows, users could be people that you know,” she said.
Jones urged people not to use opioids alone, if possible, since, like CPR, you can’t self-administer naloxone.
Naloxone is easy to administer, and a short video, available from Reverse Overdose Oregon, provides instruction.
The Oregon Health Authority states: “Naloxone can very quickly restore normal breathing for a person whose breathing has slowed down or stopped because of an overdose of prescription opioids or heroin.
“Naloxone only works for opioid drugs, including heroin, morphine, oxycodone (e.g. OxyContin, Percocet), oxymorphone (e.g. Opana), methadone, hydrocodone (e.g. Vicodin), codeine and fentanyl.”
Signs of an overdose are:
Snoring or gurgling sounds
Slowed or stopped breathing
Cold, clammy hands
Discolored lips or fingernails
The first step is to call 911, then administer naloxone. It is harmless to administer if the person is not overdosing on opioids. A Good Samaritan law in Oregon protects people from liability if they use it on someone in good faith.
Also under Oregon and Washington laws, if you think someone is overdosing and you seek medical help for the victims, neither of you will be charged for possessing or using a small amount of drugs.
It can take more than one dose, or even two or more doses, to reverse an overdose, and naloxone is only short acting, so even if someone is revived, they need to be taken to the hospital for treatment because they will soon slip back into an overdose coma.
“It’s temporary help to get them more help,” Jones said.
She said helping to provide people a medicine to reverse a drug overdose is “kind of a tricky line for YouthThink, because we want to be in the prevention business. But prevention is across the continuum, and right now if we can get parents help, their kids will have less adverse childhood experiences.”
“The ideal scenario,” said Wasco County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott Williams, “is to get help to get clean and get off drugs. There is treatment available. Also, educate your children that experimenting is dangerous and they should not do drugs or alcohol.”
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