SFD data shows fewest opioid incidents since 2017; people call for more Narcan stations
SFD gave out 185 Narcan kits in 2024, a 268% increase from 2023, when they responded to 282 opioid incidents.
Ozarks First spoke to two people who have had to use Narcan for a drug overdose, and while they say it's not just SFD handing out kits, the effort is saving lives.
'I would not be here if there wasn't Narcan stations across town,' Laura Weger says as she discusses her sobriety. 'I'm dead set to stay sober this time.'
Weger was revived with two doses of Narcan several months ago, and that's when she used that revival to revive her life.
'I laid there for two days and I still came out of it. I didn't just come right out of it. I literally lay there motionless for two days. When I did come out of it, everything was on autopilot and I immediately got sick and it was hard to understand everything for a while, but that that was my eye opener. That's when I decided [to get clean], and I walked 17 and a half miles to get into inpatient care,' Weger said.
Weger says sometimes people don't call for help before working with Narcan but does believe the number of overdose have gone down overall.
'They think, 'I don't want to get in trouble. I have this on me. I have that on me, I have warrants',' Weger said. 'Lives are being saved.'
Rusty Williams tells Ozarks First he's been revived 15 times with Narcan, some by first responders, and says that motivated him to turn his life around.
'I had broken bones and was prescribed opiates legally by a doctor. Once those ran out, I wanted more. Started experimenting with street opiates, switching over to heroin and eventually to fentanyl,' Williams said. 'I got involved in a recovery program called Broken Branches. Now, I'm a leader there, but I started to see how it affected my family and my friends, and eventually just kind of got tired of it. Sick and tired and wanted something different, and now I have ten months in recovery.'
He says it makes sense the number of incidents are down, because there are more kits on the streets.
'I think they are responding to fewer because people are readily have access to naloxone. I know for myself personally, at one time I was in the middle of an overdose in the passenger seat of a vehicle, I went to Walgreens and had to come up with $130 to get the dose. Now I can go there and get it for free,' Williams said. 'I'm starting to see more people are just keeping it in their backpacks, in their car, having it with them, handing it out. I've been saved with it and I've also saved other people with it.'
Weger and Williams believe Narcan stations should be more present in town, and more kits should be on the streets, and potentially save more lives.
'I think is extremely important, not only in my personal life, but what I see in the community for people to just have more awareness on naloxone in general, even people that don't struggle with addiction or will necessarily even know anyone, I feel like they can keep a kit in their car or give them out to people where they think they might be needed,' Williams said.
'I think we should have access to it at gas stations, on the counters, the library and anywhere that people may come and go,' Williams added. 'I feel like we should have access to it because once the life is saved, that person then has a chance to change their life, reunite with their family, and be a productive member in the community.'
'I think it's not just the fire department or even places like [Better Life in Recovery] that we hand out, like hundreds of hundreds like there's boxes coming in and there's a free station right outside. If you check it like once a week, you'll see that it's emptied and then we refill it. Like even in our meetings, like people are coming up and they're getting handfuls,' Weger said. 'We need more awareness, we need education. I think if they if they don't keep handing it out, you know, then there's going to be a lot more people die.'
Weger's desire for more kits on the streets also stems from her friend who passed away, unable to get help during an overdose.
'I lost my best friend that way. Nobody identified her. They didn't call the cops. They didn't call the ambulance. They didn't call nothing. They let her die, and she could have been saved. She could have, but people are uneducated and they did not have the resources and nobody had Narcan.'
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