This is right when the drugs started.
14 years old, almost 15, I was a full-blown addict as far as IV heroin use.
That little checkerboard bag is what we kept all of our paraphernalia in.
I overdosed more times than I can count. And I've gotten so lucky that the times
that I have overdosed, people did have Naloxone on them.
Naloxone is an opiate-opioid antagonist, meaning it can basically neutralize
the effects of having too much opioids or opiates in your system.
So if you have any questions about the kit, call. The actual kit's two vials of medicine.
You just pop that cap, draw it up in the needle and go for the arm or the thigh.
This is a generic, inexpensive medicine that is really a miracle drug
that won't hurt you if you don't need it,
it brings you back to life almost instantly
and you don't have to be a medical person to give it to somebody.
North Carolina has a very serious opioid epidemic.
Several of its cities and counties rank among the highest in the nation
for opioid use and deaths from overdose. But North Carolina also has one of the model programs
in the country for responding to the opioid epidemic.
If you're with somebody that who you think has fallen into an overdose or you show up...
The North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition is a community network
that provides services such as clean needles and HIV/Hepatitis C testing
to help make drug use safer and prevent overdose.
In North Carolina we've seen an incredible rise of heroin overdose by over 500% since 2010.
We've also seen a recent massive problem with the rise of fentanyl-h
which is extremely worrisome but it could be a lot worse if we didn't have access
to the life-saving medication Naloxone, also known as Narcan.
We've had amazing success with it. We've had over 4,100 overdose reversals
over a 3-year period, a majority of which have come in 2016.
And we've been able to give out over 32,000 kits.
Here in Cumberland County, overdoses are a daily or weekly occurrence.
We first started issuing Narcan or Naloxone in May of 2015.
Police carrying Naloxone is very important in our community and in many others
because a lot of times the police are the first ones on the scene.
That's part of our job. Our job is to save lives.
Time equals life so if it's 5 minutes, that's 5 minutes that somebody's not breathing
where we can administer Naloxone while we're waiting for EMS.
Not enough law enforcement agencies are carrying Naloxone.
Even in North Carolina where more than 100 law enforcement units are carrying it,
that is still only 1/5 of the agencies in the state.
This life-saving medication should be affordable and available at every pharmacy in the country.
It is quite inexpensive to make.
As recently 2005, it was selling for approximately a dollar a unit.
But currently, prices depending on the format and the manufacturer
are ranging from $15 as a discounted price all the way through $3,000 and up
for a different format made by a different manufacturer.
We are very dependent on certain companies that give us donations.
And if they don't give us donations basically a lot of people die.
All of this will be gone by like tomorrow or the next day
because there's a lot of people that need it.
A lot of organizations in our state can't afford it on their own
and so they all depend on us if they want to get access to the life-saving kit.
Right now, we're fortunate that we've not having to expend any money to purchase the drug
however, if this funding runs out for the NorCar Harm Reduction Coalition,
then certainly we're going to have to seek it through our operating budget each year.
And I think you start trying to make a tough decision on how much is someone's life really worth.
Some people have asked whether giving Naloxone to a person who is using drugs enables that person
to continue using drugs. My answer to that would be first of all
that it actually enables them to continue living. They are also being offered treatment services
and other harm reduction services that actually seem
to bring them closer to getting into treatment.
I've been clean going on two years this November.
I'm in school - today was actually my first full day back in school
for the first time in almost three years. I'm going for my RN in the nursing program.
And yeah, I had a great first day so hopefully it'll, it'll stay, it'll stay that way.
To me, Naloxone, enables them to stay alive, to have an other chance,
to overcome their addiction and be productive.
'Cause you're not only talking about a person dying
you're talking about how it's going to affect their family, their friends,
children and parents, it's not just that person.
We truly believe if people don't have the opportunity to have Naloxone,
people are going to die and it's100% preventable.
Access to basic medicine such as Naloxone is a human right and why wouldn't anybody support it.
While North Carolina is taking steps to help prevent opioid overdoses,
there is much more work to be done in the US.
President Trump has the opportunity to continue
and expand public health approaches to this problem.
Naloxone should be made available and affordable to those who are at risk of overdose,
harm reduction services should be expanded for people who use drugs
and first responders should be trained to carry and use Naloxone.