NC may pass a key tool to fight the opioid epidemic
As we come out of the worst days of the pandemic, the toughest days of the drug epidemic remain in front of us. The latest data from the CDC paints a devastating picture on the rise in overdose deaths during COVID-19. But just as we have the tools to bring COVID-19 to an end, so do we with the opioid epidemic. Naloxone can save a life when someone experiences an accidental overdose. We just have to equip more individuals with the medication, and lawmakers in Raleigh have it on their agenda to do so.
Here in the foothills of our state where I live, we know all too well how we got here. Dating back to 2007, Wilkes County had the third-highest drug overdose rate in the entire country. That’s the year I decided to launch Project Lazarus, which over the years has worked to address the opioid crisis at the local level. We’ve learned what works to address the crisis: prevention, intervention, treatment, counseling and peer support, and access to a medicine called naloxone. While there is no cure for the disease of addiction, naloxone is a proven antidote to an accidental overdose.
When someone experiences an overdose, their breathing can slow and eventually stop. Naloxone reverses those effects by removing the opioid substance from the brain receptor for an average of 30-90 minutes, allowing a person to start breathing again. Project Lazarus distributes naloxone kits – or what we call “survival kits” – in communities across North Carolina, and we see firsthand how it works.
For example, a young man who I know in a nearby town, now in his 30s, continues to battle addiction. He makes progress for a few months at a time but then relapses. A few years ago, his father came home and found him unconscious in the hallway. Fortunately, EMS revived him, and the ER doctor told the family to have naloxone on hand. The young man’s mother called Project Lazarus, and we sent her two of those survival kits.
Four weeks later, the young man’s mother woke up to find her son lying unresponsive on the bed – eyes open, face gray, body stiff, and foaming at the mouth. She called 9-1-1, but then remembered the naloxone. She grabbed the containers and administered the nasal spray while talking to the 9-1-1 operator. The second spray saved his life. He started to blink his eyes and breathe again. Other people deserve that chance.
The main barrier to saving more lives with naloxone is getting it in people’s hands, especially those who remain at-risk for an accidental overdose because of their opioid prescription or treatment for substance use disorder. No one expects to overdose, but we know many who remain at risk are unlikely to seek out naloxone without the support of a provider.
North Carolina House Bill 93 would require providers to educate patients who are prescribed an opioid equivalent to 50 milligrams or more about their risk of overdose and co-prescribe naloxone alongside their opioid prescription – all in the safe setting of the doctor’s office. The bill has bipartisan support and passed the North Carolina House 114-2 this April. It’s now on our State Senate to get it done.
As the COVID-19 crisis recedes we must continue our focus on ways to end an epidemic that continues to damage North Carolina communities. Our state lawmakers can take a step in the right direction by putting lifesaving medication in the hands of more of our neighbors. Because overdoses don’t discriminate. It can happen to anyone, at any time, at any moment.
Fred Wells Brason II is the President and CEO of Project Lazarus, based in Moravian Falls, North Carolina.
