North Andover Sees Drop In Opiate Overdoses

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- The North Andover rescue workers had responded to 18 overdoses during the first nine months of 2017. If the trend holds through to the remainder of the year, North Andover would finish the year with 24 overdoses, down from last year's total of 34 opiate overdoses. By the end of September 2016 there had already been 25 reported overdoses in North Andover.

The figures are included in a summary of all overdoses in North Andover between the start of 2014 and the end of last month that selectmen will review at their meeting Monday night. While overdose totals are up significantly from 2014, when the town had just 15 reported overdoses, they suggest that North Andover may not be as hard hit as other Massachusetts communities by the opioid epidemic.

The detailed breakdowns list all 91 overdoses the fire department responded to since January 1, 2014. Of those, 45% were by North Andover residents with the rest being by non-North Andover residents. There were 21 female overdose patients and 70 male overdose patients.

There were two fatal overdoses during the time period the study covers, according to the report. In February, 2015, a 26-year-old woman was pronounced dead on arrival, and a 25-year-old man who was pronounced dead on arrival in March, 2016. In April 2014, North Andover Fire Fighters were trained in administering Narcan, the overdose-reversal drug, a move that seems to have saved several of the overdose patients. Narcan was administered in 67 of the 91 North Andover overdoses since the start of 2014 by fire fighters, EMS responders, North Andover Police officer, family members or a combination of those.

The report, however, also labels several of the overdoses as "Heroin OD to Cardiac Arrest," without making clear whether or not those patients survived. The full report is available for review on the town's Website.

Subscribe to North Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).