Should Narcan for opioid overdoses be available in more public places in DeKalb County?

SYCAMORE – Should a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose become more accessible in public places in DeKalb County? The head of a northern Illinois organization supporting addiction recovery thinks so.

At one point in time, Gerald Lott couldn’t stay sober for a day. But he recently told a DeKalb County Board committee that he hasn’t had an illegal drug or swig of alcohol since April 17, 2008.

“And that’s a long time for a guy like me,” said Lott, the executive director of Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery, an organization dedicated to helping those suffering from addiction seek recovery that is at least partly funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery.

Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery is a nonprofit organization that hosts sober events in an effort to show that sobriety can be fun, and helps people suffering from addiction find treatment centers.

DeKalb County was the group’s latest visit this month, where it presented its mission.

Lott was joined by fellow Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery worker Heather Tomlinson on March 13 as they spoke about the nonprofit. They told the DeKalb County Board Committee of the Whole that they believe naloxone, commonly called Narcan, should be widely available in public schools and other public places, complete with instructions on how to use the lifesaving drug.

When given quickly, naloxone can reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioid medication, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lott said the addiction recovery organization has placed an order for 55 boxes of naloxone with audio instructions, which can be mounted on a wall similar to some automated external defibrillators.

“That should be in every classroom in our counties,” Lott said. “I don’t ever want to hear that somebody died because ‘I had the Narcan, but I didn’t know how to do it right.’ This will stop it.”

Although Sycamore School District 427 does not have naloxone in every classroom, Superintendent Steve Wilder said the drug has been kept on all school district properties for seven years.

“Philosophically, I wish we didn’t even need to consider having Narcan in our schools. But because it can be lifesaving, I’m glad that we have it in all of our schools. In the event that an individual needed it in our schools, we have the means to provide it,” Wilder wrote in an email to Shaw Local News Network.

Despite stocking the anti-overdose medication since 2017, Sycamore schools have never had to use it, Wilder wrote.

Dr. Lewis Nelson, a professor and chairman in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers University, said naloxone is a reversal agent for opioids, a big class of drugs and medications that stimulate certain receptors in human brains.

“The way naloxone works is it competes for that receptor with opioids,” Nelson said. “Despite its similar shape – and if you saw them drawn on paper, they’d look very similar – opioids stimulates that receptor. Naloxone is what we call the antagonist. It inhibits those other medications and drugs from stimulating that receptor. They compete for the same receptor but have opposite effects.”

Between October 2022 and October 2023, there were 3,702 overdose deaths in Illinois and 105,303 across the U.S., but those numbers likely are underreported because of incomplete data, according to the CDC.

DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan said law enforcement personnel often are the first to arrive at the scene of an overdose. Since 2017, his deputies also have carried the nasal spray form of Narcan.

“[In 2017], there was an increase in overdose cases or potential overdose cases, so I think it brought a lot of light to the forefront in being able to try and prevent people from dying from an overdose,” Sullivan said. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of illicit drugs on the street, and so police officers are often the first on the scene, and then you have to wait for [emergency medical services] to arrive, so this just gives another avenue, another angle for us to be able to try and help someone.”

Every patrol deputy carries two cans of naloxone, and a third, spare dose with an automated external defibrillator is kept in their patrol vehicles. Sheriff’s deputies have used the medication 24 times, and 22 of those instances were deemed successes, Sullivan said.

One of the sheriff’s deputies who’s administered the drug to individuals experiencing an overdose is Doug Brouwer.

“I have used it several times,” Brouwer said. “In one case, I actually did bring someone back that had overdosed. Between the Narcan and CPR, we were able to save his life and bring him back.”

Deputies used to have to assemble vials and put on foam nose cones before they could use a nasal spray version of the medication on a person experiencing an overdose.

Now, deputies carry a version of the drug that has streamlined its administration, Brouwer said.

Naloxone dispensers recently were installed in the lobbies of the DeKalb County Jail and the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore, made possible by grant funding secured by the director of DeKalb County court services Michael Venditti, Sullivan said.

When asked what he thinks of naloxone being stocked in schools and public buildings, and given to law enforcement officials, Nelson said he thinks “it’s a great policy.”

“When you die of an opioid, you die of respiratory depression, meaning your breathing slows – it stops,” Nelson said. “So, in theory, you don’t need naloxone to save somebody’s life. All you need to do is help them breathe, but that’s more complicated than it sounds unless it’s a loved one, for example.

“For a loved one, you might be able to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I mean, we give people high-dose opioids all the time in the hospital, but we put a breathing tube in and help them breathe, and they do fine when they wake up.

“But that’s not an option for most people in the field – certainly not for lay people – so rather than expect people to do rescue breathing, particularly on people they don’t know, you can give this medication, and you can start their breathing again.”

Nelson said one of the best aspects of naloxone is that it can’t be abused, meaning it can be given to an individual multiple times without negative medical effects.

That’s good news for first responders because it means they can administer a dose of naloxone to an unconscious individual knowing the drug can only help them, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said individuals who received a dose of naloxone can sometimes become combative “because it’s a sudden awakening.”

Nelson said that’s not a guaranteed, telltale sign of the drug working, however.

Nelson said it’s worth remembering that deaths from opioid overdoses result from slow and stopped breathing, and naloxone prevents that from happening.

He said although naloxone reverses the effects of an opioid, it doesn‘t reverse the effects of any sedative drugs a person may have in their system.

“There are even things in the drug supply that people use regularly – in the fentanyl drug supply, which is the new form of heroin we talk about – there are drugs like xylazine in it that are associated with sedation but not reversed by naloxone,” Nelson said. “So if I give you naloxone and you don’t wake up but you start breathing, that’s totally fine.”