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Pennsylvania State Police will start carrying naloxone, an antidote proven to stop overdose deaths caused by heroin and other opiods like Oxycodone and Percocet, state Gov. Tom Wolf said in a guest column submitted to newspapers.
Wolf plans to publicly announce the development Tuesday in Lancaster County.
The disease of addiction has had “devastating impacts” in too many areas of the state, Wolf said in his column. Police, emergency medical professionals and other first responders across the country are now carrying naloxone, he said.
“A government that works protects and helps its most vulnerable,” Wolf wrote.
The addition of Pennsylvania state police carrying naloxone stems from a new state law approved in September that allows local police and other first responders and the friends and family members of addicts to obtain and administer the antidote, also known as Narcan.
The law also provides immunity from prosecution for those responding to and reporting overdoses.
Before the new law, the antidote couldn’t be administered until medical emergency responders arrived or the overdosing person was taken to a medical facility, officials say.
Death from overdose typically occurs within one to three hours, leaving a brief window of opportunity for intervention, published medical reports say.
Naloxone, which has been used for decades, counteracts a shut-down of the central nervous and respiratory systems, allowing an overdose victim to breathe normally, according to medical experts. The medication has no effect if opiods are absent and is not a controlled substance that can be abused and can be injected or sprayed into the nose, experts say.
Wolf said all state police vehicles will have the nasal spray form of the antidote.
His proposed 2015-16 budget includes funding to provide naloxone kids to first responders, local drug and alcohol programs and others across the state, he said. His administration also is working to ensure first responders across the state receive training on how to administer the antidote.
He also directed state Physician General Rachel Levine to write a “standing order” for naloxone to ensure it is available to citizens who obtain prescriptions, his column said.
Luzerne County Drug and Alcohol Administrator Michael Donahue has been encouraging pharmacies to keep naloxone in stock and educating doctors, addicts and those close to them of the new law.
“We believe this will help save many lives,” Donahue said.
Accidental drug overdoses were once again the leading killer of Luzerne County residents in 2014 after deaths from natural causes, recent statistics showed.
Overdose deaths have ranged from 45 to 70 annually in the county since 2002, and there were 63 last year, according to data released by the county coroner’s office. In comparison, 39 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2014.
Nearly 3,000 heroin-related overdose deaths have been identified in Pennsylvania over the past five years, state officials say.