I have something new that I want to keep with me all the time. No, not my car keys. Not my (own) medication. Not even my phone.
It’s true that all of those things will more than likely be with me at any given time. However, one thing I will want to be sure is with me is the Narcan medication I picked up when the 24/7 dispensary opened for business last Wednesday.
The call came in several days ago that a box to make naloxone available in Bluffton was going to be the subject of a ceremony. Could somebody from the News-Banner be there?
Wednesday morning, my fellow reporter Holly Gaskill, my only colleague in the editorial department right now, texted me to be sure I’d be going to the gathering. The way we’ve got things going on right now is that I always work second shift and Holly comes in during first shift. Since there’s only two of us, it’s easy to figure out who’s doing what.
Anyway, I had read about naloxone — Narcan is its brand name — and I know there’s been more than a little bit of controversy about it. The package I have on my desk while I’m writing this states what it does right on the label: “Overdose reversal.”
To summarize the controversy: Are we enabling substance abusers by making it possible to take overdose after overdose of their favorite opioid while medics, police officers, firefighters, and now the general public can show up and give them another chance at life?
I understand that life is precious. In fact, the more I scratched my head — and my tummy — to think about it, I decided this much: I am firmly on the side of life.
I talked to Mayor John Whicker and to Police Chief Kyle Randall last Wednesday. Is this a good idea or not, that we make Narcan available to everyone? They both understood the controversy, but it’s significant to note that they were both there, a few steps from City Hall behind the Community Thrift store on South Main Street, to mark the opening of the dispensary.
I was there, too.
I stayed afterwards to talk with Chris Walker, with Chris Walker, the executive director of Community Care of Northeast Indiana, and Molly Hoag of Citizens Against Drug Abuse, to about the project.
Walker, as I noted in the story about the site that appeared in Thursday’s News-Banner, had a daughter that nearly died of a heroin overdose. She recovered and she’s turned her life around; she’s now working at a church in Huntington.
What if no one was there to rescue the young woman from an overdose? There would have been a very sad mother, as well as other family members, and friends, and for that matter, an entire community.
In the story, I summarized the argument for the overdose reversal medication with simple observation: Where there’s life, there’s hope.
So I now possess a package with the Narcan in it. It’s been sitting on my desk until now. As I finish this column, it’s coming off of my desk and it’s going into my bookbag/briefcase. If you come across someone who may be a victim (and yes, that’s the term I am going to use) of an overdose, and I happen to be somewhere close at hand, I’ll have my naloxone within a few steps of where I am. Just let me know.
I’m here to help. I’ve got Narcan.
daves@news-banner.com
