Combating drug abuse
Marshall County Jail staff prepared for opioid overdoses
With the use of heroin and other opioids — Hydrocodone, Oxycodone — becoming more widespread in Iowa, staff at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office and Jail have “taken a preemptive strike,” said Sheriff Steve Hoffman.
Hoffman and Marshall County Jail Nurse RaDonna Bracy, R.N., said jail staff are now trained to use NARCAN nasal spray — an FDA approved medication which immediately thwarts or reverses the opioids’ impact on the brain.
NARCAN is a brand name for a Naltrexone, an antagonist medication, which technically prevents opioids from activating brain receptors.
“With the growing opioid epidemic in the state, it is not unrealistic to think someone could come to us in a state of intoxication,” said Hoffman. “An arrestee, either by one of our deputies or the Marshalltown police, could suddenly be unresponsive from an opioid. Realizing there is a 10-15 minute wait for emergency services, we wanted to be prepared. NARCAN almost instantaneously reverses the effects of an opioid.”
Wisely, the product can be found in two key locations.
“NARCAN is kept at two places in the jail,” said Bracy. “One in booking, so it is readily available at intake, and in the medical room, so if the inmate is processed into the jail and something would happen … NARCAN could be readily accessed.”
Bracy said it is critical for staff to recognize symptoms and take prompt action.
“NARCAN is comparable in use to allergy sprays,” she said. “If necessary two doses can be used, one must wait three minutes after the first dose.”
Hoffman said videos showing NARCAN’s impact were significant.
“With its use we may be able to save a life,” said Hoffman. “Use of NARCAN and alerting medical professionals puts us in the position of being proactive rather than reactive.”
No prescription is required.
There is a state “standing order” for its use.
For example, the order allows a citizen to go to a pharmacy and request the product in the event the product is needed to reverse an overdose for one’s relative.
“The clock is ticking,” Hoffman said. “In recent years, opioid overdoses and deaths has been increasing in Polk and Story counties, and recently in Jasper and Tama counties.”
Aiding the MCSO and other law enforcement agencies has been the Iowa Department of Public Health. Since 1997, IDPH has funded selected opioid treatment programs to provide medication assisted treatment to Iowans in the form of methadone maintenance. As approaches to medication assisted treatment continued to evolve through IDPH’s Access to Recovery grant, IDPH began funding additional medications such as Naltrexone and Buprenorphine. In 2015, IDPH was awarded a Medication Assisted Treatment–Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction (MAT-PDOA) grant to further support the state’s efforts in addressing opioid misuse.
For more information about heroin and opioid dependency treatment options in Iowa, visit IDPH Medication Assisted Treatment web-page at idph. iowa,gov/mat.