When Faced With A Drug Overdose Situation, What Would You Do?

Picture this; you are picking your daughter up at a party and upon arrival, you find one of the kids passed out in a corner. They are non-responsive and not breathing, with all of the signs of an overdose. What do you do?

With an average emergency call response time of 11 minutes or more what you do is critical and can make all the difference. 11 minutes may seem like a short time period, but try holding your breath for 5 minutes and I think you will get the point.

Last week an opiate overdose prevention and NARCAN (Naloxone) training workshop was hosted by two groups, the South Huntington Against Drugs (SHAD) and the Long Island Council On Alcoholism And Drug Dependence(LICADD) in Huntington. NARCAN training teaches you how overdoses work, and how to administer the drug  Naloxone which reverses the effects of opioid drugs like Oxycodon and Heroin.

There are a number of organizations like this across Long Island. I attended this workshop representing the Northport East Northport Drug and Alcohol Task force and it was an eye opener. I am proud to say that by using the kit given that if I am faced with an overdose situation, I may be able to save a life!

Some startling statistics were shown along with important information on how overdoses work, and how they can be reversed. Information like;

• One American dies every 19 minutes from a prescription drug overdose, many of them being kids. 370 deaths from prescription drug overdoses occurred on long island last year.
• What exactly is an overdose and how does the
  body shut down?
• What are opiate and opioid type drugs and their
  pharmaceutical names?
• How does administering the drug Naloxone reverse
  the overdose effect?

Once completing a NARCAN Training workshop, the procedure is fairly simple to learn. It is my recommendation that any one (particularly parents) who can, should attend one. More and more of these  training workshops are beingmade available and most of them are free. YOU MIGHT JUST SAVE A LIFE!

The Northport East Northport Community Drug and Alcohol Task force will be hosting a NARCAN training workshop in the near future in conjunction with a town meeting. Like our Facebook community page and or contact us at dataskforce@yahoo.com to receive info on this and other important information about fight against teenage drug abuse.

Scott Norcott

Northport East Northport
Community Drug and Alcohol Task Force

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