0:00

I'm Anna Sale, host of Death, Sex,

0:02

and Money, and I'm hosting Hold On, a

0:04

series of national live call-in specials from

0:06

WNYC about our mental

0:08

health.

0:09

Join me as we talk together. Listen

0:12

wherever you get podcasts.

0:15

Thanks for being with us on The Takeaway. I'm MHP.

0:18

This weekend in Portland, Oregon, eight

0:21

people died from overdose as

0:23

a result of fentanyl poisoning. Were

0:26

it a gun crime, we'd call it a massacre.

0:30

But it's only a tiny fraction of

0:32

the mounting death toll from opioid overdoses

0:34

that continues to wreak havoc in cities,

0:37

towns, and rural communities across the

0:39

nation.

0:41

But there's something we can do. And

0:44

by we, I mean you, me,

0:47

all of us, who with a little planning

0:49

and training, just might make a life-saving

0:52

difference. In

0:54

March, the Food and Drug Administration authorized

0:57

over-the-counter sales of Narcan. It's

1:00

the easily administered drug that can reverse

1:02

the effects of an opioid overdose.

1:05

It's a decision that could save many

1:07

lives. So for our

1:10

show's very last Takeaway Reports,

1:13

producer Katarina Barton set out

1:15

to learn more. Hi, how are you doing?

1:19

Good. Oh my God, it's so good to see you. It's been so many years.

1:21

I know. It's been so long. This

1:23

is Joanna Kaufman.

1:27

We were

1:30

friends in high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico,

1:32

but we haven't talked in a few years. I'm

1:34

a nursing student, full-spectrum doula,

1:37

and priestess-in-training living

1:39

in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1:41

We both had younger brothers around

1:43

the same age. Ben was

1:46

an amazing young man.

1:50

He was really

1:52

soft-spoken, really

1:55

kind, really compassionate. He

1:58

could never pass somebody on.

1:59

the street without offering something,

2:02

whether it was like food

2:05

or some money, if somebody was in need.

2:07

He, I feel like he really felt

2:11

the world. He loved animals.

2:13

He just had a heart of gold.

2:16

Benjamin died from an opioid

2:18

overdose in 2019. It

2:21

means a lot to get to share

2:23

Ben's story in a

2:25

more public way. And yeah,

2:28

also difficult because

2:31

I don't want

2:33

him to be defined by how

2:35

he died, like anybody. And

2:38

like a lot of people who become addicted

2:40

to or misuse opioids, he started

2:42

with prescription medications.

2:45

I believe that he

2:49

first got access to narcotics

2:52

through my dad's prescription.

2:55

My dad had cancer

2:58

and it was painful.

3:00

And Ben somehow

3:02

got access to that and tried

3:05

it and really

3:07

liked it. It became his

3:09

drug of choice. Ben

3:12

was around 18 years old when he

3:14

first started using. Joanna says he

3:16

tried to conceal it from her and the rest

3:18

of his family, but eventually.

3:21

So he overdosed once. My

3:23

mom found him.

3:25

He was unconscious and she did CPR

3:27

and called 911 and they revived

3:30

him with Narcan and they saved his life.

3:32

And he went and detoxed

3:34

at the hospital. And even then

3:37

was convincing everybody it wasn't a problem.

3:39

And the second time it was fatal.

3:47

He was with some

3:50

friends who were

3:52

probably also using and

3:55

they were

3:57

around his age. Ben had just turned

5:59

And that's like the loss when we don't

6:02

take the steps to be

6:04

prepared.

6:09

We're pausing here. Up next, I'll

6:12

learn some of the simple steps that can save

6:14

someone from a fatal overdose. This

6:17

is The Takeaway.

6:29

We're taught the Supreme Court was designed

6:32

to be above the fray. But

6:34

right now, are the nine justices living

6:36

up to that promise? I'm Julia Longoria,

6:39

host of the podcast

6:40

More Perfect. We bring the highest

6:42

court in the land down to earth.

6:45

We'll meet people on all sides of crucial cases

6:48

and give you the history that explains how we

6:50

got here. More Perfect from

6:52

WNYC Studios. Listen wherever

6:55

you get podcasts.

7:00

You're

7:00

back with The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry,

7:02

and we're bringing you a special takeaway report

7:05

on the continuing opioid crisis and

7:07

the harm reduction strategies and tools that

7:10

can save lives. Here

7:12

again is our producer,

7:13

Katarina Barton. Over the past

7:16

two decades, the number of people dying

7:18

from opioid overdoses in New York and

7:20

across the United States are rising

7:22

each year.

7:24

This is from prescription opioids, and

7:26

also because of the massive flow of fentanyl

7:29

into the American drug trade. More

7:31

than 81% of the overdose deaths

7:33

in New York City in 2021 involve fentanyl. It's

7:37

being found in more and more types of drugs

7:39

like heroin, meth, and even cocaine.

7:42

But there is something that public health

7:45

experts say could help. Narcan

7:48

is an overdose prevention tool that anyone

7:51

can use. It's legal, and it's pretty

7:53

quick and easy to learn how to use it,

7:55

and it can reverse an opioid overdose.

7:58

A CDC study from 2020. found that

8:00

nearly 40% of overdose deaths

8:03

occurred while another person was nearby.

8:06

Which means the more people carrying

8:08

Narcan, the better chance there

8:10

is of saving a life. After

8:12

her brother's death in 2019, Joanna

8:14

got trained to administer Narcan.

8:17

And I do carry Narcan all the time. Sometimes

8:20

either on like Ben's birthday or

8:22

death anniversary,

8:25

I do encourage my friends to sign up

8:27

for training. It's free. You get free

8:29

Narcan. Yeah, I feel like

8:31

people are overdosing all around us. You

8:34

just never know when you don't know who.

8:37

At least in New York City, there are dozens of

8:39

public trainings online and harm reduction

8:42

centers that are willing and waiting to train

8:44

people on how to administer Narcan.

8:47

One of these places is the After Hours Project,

8:49

which is nestled between Myrtle and Broadway

8:51

under the subway tracks in Brooklyn, New York.

8:54

I went

8:56

there to meet with Alina Rotov. I

8:58

am the Narcan coordinator

9:01

here at After Hours Project,

9:03

which basically means I do

9:06

Narcan trainings and I keep track

9:08

of the Narcan that we have going

9:11

in and out every month.

9:12

Narcan is just one of the prevention tools

9:14

they use. After Hours Project is

9:17

a nonprofit basically. It

9:19

was started 20 years ago to help stop

9:21

the spread

9:24

of hep C and HIV, particularly

9:27

in injection drug users. So

9:29

giving people clean needles,

9:32

clean syringes, helping pick

9:34

up dirty syringes in the community. And then

9:37

we sort of expanded from there. Alina

9:40

gave me a tour of their office

9:42

and trained me on how to administer

9:44

Narcan. When you use

9:47

it on a person, just

9:50

as a regular nasal spray like you would anything

9:52

else, it essentially will

9:55

block the opioid receptors in

9:57

the person's brain for

9:59

30 to 90 minutes

10:02

and this will stop

10:06

respiratory depression, which is what

10:08

overdose is essentially. The

10:11

kit that I'm going to give you today has

10:13

two doses of four

10:15

milligrams. Basically if after

10:18

you use the first dose the person doesn't wake

10:20

up after a minute or two you can

10:23

go ahead and use the second dose. That's because

10:25

it's completely legal to use this

10:27

on anybody at any time because it's

10:30

completely harmless. Essentially if you

10:33

don't have any opioids in your system it's

10:35

not going to have any effect on you at all.

10:38

So first Alina says that if

10:40

you think someone might be experiencing an overdose

10:43

you'll want to check for respiratory depression,

10:45

which is when someone's breathing slows way down.

10:49

You're

10:49

also going to look to see if a person is

10:51

responsive. So if somebody is non-responsive

10:54

to like shouting or yelling

10:57

we recommend doing a sternal rub which is where

10:59

you make a fist and

11:01

then rub it on the chest

11:03

cavity gently a little hard but

11:06

not too hard just enough to be uncomfortable just

11:08

so that you're not like shaking someone's shoulders

11:11

if they like maybe fell on their head or

11:13

something. Just like a gentle way to

11:15

see if that person is responsive to touch.

11:18

Alina says if the person is still

11:20

not responding the first step is to

11:22

call 911 to get paramedics.

11:25

EMTs will have extra doses of Narcan

11:28

and will be able to do CPR if it's needed.

11:30

It's important to call 911 because Narcan

11:33

only blocks opioids for 30 to 90 minutes

11:36

so it gives time for paramedics to arrive

11:39

and for someone to get to the hospital to

11:41

be treated further. It does not remove

11:44

the opioids from the person's blood

11:46

like you've ingested the opioids already you can't get them

11:48

out. Once it wears off the

11:50

person could overdose again. Your

11:52

body's had a little bit of time to work through the

11:55

drug but once the Narcan

11:57

wears off it could result

11:59

in a

11:59

another overdose. After you've

12:02

called 911 and paramedics are

12:04

on their way, then she says you

12:06

can administer the Narcan.

12:08

Basically you want to

12:10

you know take the Narcan out

12:12

of the package and if

12:15

you can sort of like tilt the person's head

12:17

back a little bit you can sort

12:19

of give a glance to the nasal passage

12:21

just make sure there's nothing like obstructing

12:24

it at which point you will you

12:26

know put the nasal spray

12:28

inside either nostril doesn't matter

12:31

and press down on the plunger.

12:34

You want to make sure that it's fully in there before you

12:36

press on the plunger because otherwise it will

12:38

be lost. Each shot is just

12:40

one dose and then you know after

12:42

a minute or so if there's no response you can

12:44

go ahead and use the second dose.

12:47

If a person still isn't responding

12:49

then Elena says you can administer CPR

12:51

if you're trained until paramedics arrive.

12:54

If you're worried about calling 911

12:56

because you have drugs on you or you're

12:58

worried about getting the other person in trouble,

13:01

it's good to know that most states have good Samaritan

13:03

laws which will protect you. The

13:05

good Samaritan law will protect

13:07

you and the person you're calling for so

13:11

basically even if the person

13:13

has drugs on them or you have drugs

13:15

on you, you will be

13:18

protected from prosecution except

13:21

in the case of like open warrants

13:23

and child welfare cases and immigration

13:26

related issues.

13:27

Narcan is already pretty readily

13:30

available and the good news is it

13:32

will become even more widely available

13:34

later this year. In March

13:37

the FDA authorized the drug to be sold

13:39

over the counter at pharmacies across the

13:41

US without a prescription and

13:43

Elena says the more people who know about

13:46

Narcan and how to use it and the more accessible

13:48

it is it can save lives and

13:52

eliminate a lot of the stigma that comes with

13:54

drug use or even carrying around

13:56

an overdose prevention drug.

13:58

The stigma surrounding it can be really

14:00

damaging. So that puts

14:02

a lot of normal people who might

14:05

have stigma around drug use in their

14:07

family. It puts their family members at

14:09

risk when there's heavy stigma

14:12

surrounding carrying Narcan

14:14

or when there's assumptions being made

14:16

about like, oh well you must use drugs or this

14:19

and that. It's like if the more it

14:21

becomes normalized to have it, I think overall

14:23

the safer every public environment

14:26

and private environment will be. For

14:29

my friend Joanna, she just wants people

14:32

to care about the opioid epidemic

14:34

just as much as any other public health crisis.

14:37

We're all masking, right? Throughout the

14:39

pandemic, we're all social distancing

14:42

and really like policing each other

14:45

about that.

14:46

But I

14:49

think that there's this association

14:51

around like substance

14:53

use that maybe

14:55

their lives are worthless or

14:58

it's their fault or they're

15:00

putting themselves in harm's way

15:02

or whatever the story is

15:05

that makes us feel like we

15:07

are not responsible for being

15:10

in like community care around

15:12

them or like you know,

15:14

carrying Narcan. Whatever it is,

15:17

I would really like to see

15:19

the same sort of collective

15:22

and individual responsibility that people

15:25

felt for the pandemic around

15:28

the opioid epidemic.

15:36

For The Takeaway, I'm Katerina

15:38

Burton.