09-15-2024 GAR - Flipbook - Page 8
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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Sunday, September 15, 2024
In Case of Overdose
Using Narcan/Naloxone to save lives
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
L
ogan Whitehall’s family found
him on the floor of his apartment, shaking and completely out of it. They immediately called
911 and he was taken to the hospital. They were shocked when the
doctor told them he had fentanyl in
his system. They couldn’t figure out
how that happened. Then the doctor
turned to the family and asked, “Do
you keep Naloxone at home?” They
were stunned.
“For anyone who uses opioids or
illegal drugs, the odds are against you
as every single one is now laced with
fentanyl, one of the most dangerous
medications in existence,” explains
Dr. Nishant Shah, president of the
Maryland-DC Society of Addiction
Medicine, and consultant with the
Maryland Department of Health.
According to the Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA), “Fentanyl is a potent
synthetic opioid drug approved by the
Food and Drug Administration for
use as an analgesic (pain relief) and
anesthetic. It is approximately 100
times more potent than morphine and
50 times more potent than heroin as
an analgesic.”
Shah had another warning. “If you
take prescription medications and
buy them on the street instead of at
a pharmacy, we are finding that they
also have fentanyl in them. Which
drugs? We see it in valium, oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall, to name a
few. You are playing with your life to
save a little money.”
The only way to prevent someone
from dying due to opioid use is administering Naloxone, also known by
its brand name as Narcan, a medicine
that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
In plain English, Naloxone finds the
opioid in someone’s blood and stops
it from affecting that person. It then
restores normal breathing. It will have
no effect on people without opioids in
their systems. Opioids include heroin,
fentanyl, oxycodone (OxyContin),
hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine and
morphine.
Shah pointed out that since fentanyl
is so much more powerful than other opioids, a second dose is often required to mitigate the effects. “If anyone you know is using illicit drugs,
you should keep Naloxone on hand.”
According to the Maryland Depart-
ment of Health (MDH), Naloxone is
available from any pharmacy. “There
is a statewide standing order issued by
Laura Herrera Scott, M.D., M.P.H.,
secretary, MDH, that allows all Maryland licensed pharmacists to dispense
naloxone, including any necessary
supplies for administration, to any individual,” according to its website.
But, says the MDH, “naloxone is
not free at a pharmacy, but it is covered by many insurance plans (copays
vary) and Maryland Medicaid.”
You can also visit any of the MDH
Approved Entities for its Overdose
Response Programs (ORPs) throughout the state. Many of them make
Naloxone available for free along
with fentanyl test strips. If, as mentioned above, you are buying preNarcan / Naloxone
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