OPINION - Guest writer

The gift of life

Grant helping fight opioid crisis

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of unintentional death in the United States, with 64,070 drug overdose deaths between January 2015 and January 2017 (CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 2017). The crisis in opioid overdose deaths has reached epidemic proportions and currently exceeds all other drug-related deaths or traffic fatalities.

For this reason, on Oct. 26, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency impacting every state. However, he failed to propose federal actions to make overdose-reversal drugs like naloxone more widely available, despite the fact that the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis stressed the importance of ensuring that naloxone is made as widely available as possible.

Naloxone, an opiate antagonist that can rapidly reverse opioid overdose, was approved in a nasal spray version (Narcan) by the Federal Drug Administration in late 2015. It has a long history of safe and effective use by health-care systems, providers, paramedics and emergency medicine technicians, and--more recently--law enforcement agency first responders.

The president's commission recommended that all U.S. law enforcement agencies be equipped with this lifesaving drug. Narcan is an important tool in the hands of police officers and sheriff's deputies, who often respond to overdose calls several minutes before ambulances.

Unfortunately, only 11 out of 458 Arkansas Law Enforcement Agencies have secured Narcan funding sources and implemented policies, procedures, and training to maintain a naloxone program within their agencies: Benton, Jacksonville, Maumelle, Rogers, and Southern Arkansas University police departments; the Arkansas State Police; and the Independence, Pulaski, Saline and Washington County sheriff's offices. The Little Rock Police Department has just begun its implementation.

Although Arkansas has received two large federal grants for prevention and treatment of opioid abuse disorder, enabling the development of a standardized training program for administration of naloxone by first responders, these grant funds only provide for distribution of a limited number of naloxone doses to first-responder agencies in designated high-risk target counties.

The state is currently exploring ways to provide a permanent funding stream to purchase lifesaving naloxone kits, but our requests for state, federal or foundation dollars will take time to obtain a response. We have a critical need for funds to "tide us over" until we have a permanent mechanism in place to provide a stable supply of naloxone for use by all Arkansas first-responder agencies.

The Bentonville, Clarksville, Conway, Fayetteville, Hope, Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Paragould, Texarkana and Trumann Police Departments and the Johnson, Lonoke, Mississippi and Pope County sheriff's offices have requested financial assistance from the Office of the Drug Director. Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield has responded to its request with a Blue & You Foundation grant for $125,000. This grant will provide naloxone kits for 1,150 officers at these agencies, as well as training for administration of the drug to individuals experiencing an overdose.

Since implementation of the Arkansas "Naloxone Saves" program in October of 2016, the Office of the Drug Director has recognized 16 officers who saved 18 overdose victims. Due to the generosity of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, we anticipate that this number will increase steadily in the new year.

This year, the Blue & You Foundation awarded $2.3 million in grants to 40 health-improvement programs across the state. In the case of the Naloxone Emergency Response Project, each donation of approximately $100 has the real potential to save a life.

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Gloria Gordon of North Little Rock wrote the successful grant proposal to purchase naloxone for first-responder agencies.

Editorial on 12/09/2017

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