East Brunswick Offers Overdose Training Amidst Reports of Scary New Drug

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ-- East Brunswick is offering free training on how to use Narcan, the drug used to reverse heroin overdoses, this Monday.

The training comes amidst national reports of a drug so deadly, experts say a snowflake sized amount can kill: carfentanil.

A synthetic opioid, carfentanil is 5,000 times more powerful than heroin. Its main use is as a tranquilizer for elephants, and can be absorbed through the skin, making accidental contact extremely dangerous.

The East Brunswick training will teach people at a high risk of encountering opiates like heroin or carfentanil how to use Narcan nasal spray to combat overdoses.

Organizers ask that only those who are at risk for an overdose, or their family and friends, attend the training. Space is limited to the first fifteen people.

Although heroin has not been a major problem in East Brunswick, it has been a major problem statewide in recent years, including in the nearby towns of Plainfield and Edison.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration released a warning about carfentanil this week, urging police officers and those who might encounter the drug to learn the warning signs of accidental consumption.

"It is crazy dangerous. Synthetics such as fentanyl and carfentanil can kill you," DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement, "I hope our first responders – and the public – will read and heed our health and safety warning. These men and women have remarkably difficult jobs and we need them to be well and healthy.”

An Atlantic County police officer was exposed to fentanyl, a drug less lethal than carfentanil but more deadly than heroin, saying, "I thought that was it. I thought I was dying. It felt like my body was shutting down."

The East Brunswick event will be held Monday, Oct. 3 at 6:00 PM at 320 Cranbury Road, Suite 105. A second training will be offered at Rutgers on Oct. 26 at 6:00 PM, at 151 Centennial Ave in Piscataway. Both are limited to the first 15 participants, first come first served. For more information, call.

You can watch a DEAs video on fentanyl here.

Image via Adapt Pharma.