Narcan: The anti-drug drug - NashuaTelegraph.com

Narcan: The anti-drug drug - NashuaTelegraph.com
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Narcan: The anti-drug drug
By JOSEPH G. COTE
Staff Writer
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There are only a couple of drugs that EMTs and paramedics carry that produce immediate effects.
One of them, according to Chris Stawasz, is Narcan, and it’s a wonder drug.
Stawasz is the executive director of Rockingham Regional Ambulance, the state’s largest emergency medical services company.
The company’s 175 paramedics and EMTs administered 255 does of Narcan in 2010 to immediately and dramatically reverse the effects of overdoses of heroin and other narcotics.
“It’s one of the few drugs we carry that you can see an instantaneous effect,” Stawasz said.
That’s compared with 195 doses used in 2009, but doesn’t necessarily equate to the number of overdoses the company deals with, Stawasz said.
Statewide, Narcan was used 768 times in 2010, according to the state Bureau of Emergency Services.
Still, there appears to be a growing trend on the radar. Nashua Police investigated six heroin-related deaths in 2010, compared with three in 2009 and four in 2008, according to Nashua Police Lt. Scott Hammond.
Narcan, a branded version of naoloxone, is a “narcotic antagonist,” Stawasz said. It essentially latches onto the same opioid receptors that heroin and other narcotic drugs do. But since Narcan is stronger, it blocks blood cells’ opiate receptors, meaning the narcotics have nowhere to hang onto and are therefore useless.
In practice, that means when the drug is administered – intravenously, intramuscularly or by nasal spray – an overdose victim recovers almost instantly, Stawasz said.
Those unfortunate overdose victims can be almost literally dead, not breathing and heart not beating, and within seconds of the Narcan being given, have beating hearts and breathing lungs, and are almost back to normal, Stawasz said.
The other drug that produces such instant results is D50 – or Dextrose 50 – that EMTs and paramedics give to patients in the midst of a diabetic emergency, Stawasz said.
There are several reasons to explain why the number of times Narcan is given doesn’t directly correlate to the number of overdoses Rockingham Ambulance crews have dealt with.
For one, if the victim has already died because of an overdose, the drug is useless. There are also more complicated medical factors that may prevent its use, Stawasz said.
Stawasz agrees with Hammond that drug use is still on the rise in Nashua.
“What we’re seeing is people mixing narcotics, trying to enhance the effects of heroin,” Stawasz said.
There are any number of ways to do that, Stawasz said, including chewing Oxycontin pills or a Fentynol patch while shooting or smoking heroin.
“I would say drug use overall has gotten a lot worse,” he said.
Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com.