Arkansas officers packing opioid antidote

Foundation helps supply spray drug

When Maumelle police officers arrived at a residence on an overdose call last weekend, they found a victim on the floor of his bathroom.

His mother had found him slumped in the corner, with the shower still running, before she called police in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The 23-year-old was barely responsive with a faint pulse and was lying next to a needle -- a circumstance that called for the use of Narcan, a nasal spray medication that can counteract an opioid overdose. As soon as the officers administered the spray, the victim revived and could begin answering the officers' questions.

Last year, the Maumelle Police Department acquired and distributed 34 Narcan kits, enough for every officer on the small force. Last Saturday morning was the first time a Maumelle officer had dosed a victim with what is now being called a life-saving drug.

"If they hadn't had the supply on them, then we'd have had a death out there," said Muskie Harris, who runs the Muskie Harris Rehabilitation Service in Little Rock. Harris donated $3,000 worth of Narcan kits to the Maumelle Police Department last week.

Narcan has become a relatively recent addition to law enforcement agencies' tool kits after being approved by the Federal Drug Administration in late 2015 as the first nasal spray version of naloxone -- a common overdose antidote long used by emergency medical responders.

Because of its nasal-spray form, Narcan is valued among medical professionals for its ease of use. Even people who are not medical professionals can be easily trained to administer a potentially life-saving dose.

In the hands of police officers and sheriff's deputies, who often respond to overdose calls several minutes before ambulances, the medication has become an important tool in fighting a nationwide epidemic of opioid overdose deaths.

In Arkansas, the state Health Department has recorded a climbing number of overdose fatalities in recent years, often induced by opioid drugs such as methadone, hydrocodone and Oxycontin.

The number of overdose deaths in the state increased by nearly 50 percent, from 153 in 2011 to 227 in 2015. The state department recorded a total of 958 fatalities in that five-year period.

Naloxone -- the generic form of Narcan, usually administered intravenously -- has been on every Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services ambulance in central Arkansas for more than three decades. The ambulance service has also recorded a steady rise in the number of instances of naloxone use, up from 352 in 2011 to 439 in 2016.

This year is on track to break records. Medics have administered naloxone 28 percent more times so far in 2017 than the 76 uses by this time last year, MEMS Chief Executive Officer Jon Swanson said. And medics respond to many more overdose calls than are indicated by naloxone use numbers, he said.

"There's an awful lot more overdose calls we run on than that," Swanson said. "It's just that the patient's condition is such that we're at the naloxone level."

With the largest service area in the state, MEMS serves central Arkansas' rural and urban areas, although response times in the rural areas can often be twice as long as those in the city.

"If you're out in the county, where things are spread out more than they are in the city, the police officer would potentially arrive on scene several minutes before fire or EMS," Swanson said. "In the city we are certainly going to be there much faster, but I'm fully in support of police officers having tools like this to save lives."

The Pulaski County sheriff's office has recently begun using Narcan, having purchased kits at $75 apiece for each of the department's roughly 130 deputies earlier this spring.

On May 17, deputies responded to two overdose cases just hours apart. In both cases they reported using the nasal spray to revive victims who had been unresponsive.

The Benton, Jacksonville and the North Little Rock police departments have had similar successes after purchasing Narcan kits within the past two years. Among the three agencies, the medication has been used seven times so far in 2017.

Much of the credit for the distribution of Narcan kits to communities in central Arkansas is due to the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, the public health arm of the Clinton Foundation.

Last fall, the initiative announced in Little Rock a new focus on increasing access to Narcan in communities -- among police officers and firefighters, in public schools, and at college campuses.

In 2014, the Clinton Health Matters Initiative launched a broad campaign against the nationwide opioid epidemic, and Narcan has become an important weapon in that fight. The initiative has distributed more than 6,000 doses across the nation, according to its website.

In Arkansas, the initiative has given doses to the Jacksonville Police Department, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Recovery Centers of Arkansas, Philander Smith College, the Maumelle Police Department and the Flippin School District.

"We know that increasing access to naloxone is not the only answer to addressing the opioid epidemic but believe that by working with high schools, colleges, and other places where people are already gathering, we're taking an important step in promoting broader awareness of this issue and helping the people who are dealing with it," Alex Chan, director of national health for the initiative, said in a statement.

The Arkansas Legislature also contributed its efforts in 2015 when it passed the Naloxone Access Act, sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, and Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan. Similar to a good Samaritan law, the act provides legal immunity to first responders or medical professionals administering the drug while acting in good faith.

However, state law still prohibits the distribution of the medication to individuals who may want to keep it on hand in case a loved one experiences an overdose crisis.

Rapert said state laws dealing with naloxone are "ever-evolving," and that he would be in support of any legislation that would spread the medication more widely.

"We've had many people saved because of the access and utilization," he said. "It's very fulfilling to know that what we've been able to do has actually helped to save some people's lives."

While the medication has made definite inroads in central Arkansas, it has spread less widely among law enforcement agencies elsewhere in the state.

In Washington County, the Central EMS ambulance service reported a 46 percent increase in naloxone uses between 2011 and 2016, although last year's figures had dropped to 190 after a spike in 2015.

"We've seen a marked increase, although I'm not sure I would say 'huge,'" said Becky Stewart, chief paramedic of Central EMS.

In north-central Arkansas, Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery aims to incorporate the drug into his department soon. He has plans to purchase Narcan sometime this year.

Metro on 05/28/2017

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