Mayor: Drug dealers selling heroin in tandem with Narcan
http://www.wmur.com/news/mayor-drug-dealers-selling-heroin-in-tandem-with-narcan/38475186
It may seem contradictory, but Mayor Ted Gatsas believes drug dealers are selling heroin, fentanyl and the drug that reverses that high.
A director from a treatment facility in Manchester said the availability of the life-saving drug Narcan does not encourage addiction.
“It is now a selling tool,” Gatsas said.
As he was walking out of his Manchester office Thursday, Gatsas said a “tough” young man approached him.
“And he said to me, ‘Mayor, there’s going to be a lot less deaths in Manchester in the next few months.'”
Prompted, Gatsas asked how that was going to happen.
“And he said, ‘That’s because the dealers have started to buy Narcan and carry it with them,'” Gatsas said.
“‘And they’ll give you your heroin or whatever they’re selling you, and they’ll tell you that, if you have a problem, you’ll have Narcan to bring you back.'”
Gatsas thinks this practice could be dangerous, because many overdoses require more than one dose of naloxone, or Narcan, to reverse the effects of drugs.
But Stephanie Bergeron, of Serenity Place, doesn’t think dealers selling Narcan is an issue.
“We haven’t heard anything about Narcan being sold in tandem to heroin,” Bergeron said. “That is a new statement on our end as a treatment facility. You can get Narcan over the counter at places like CVS. So i’m not sure if that’s actually happening.”
Even though Narcan is available over the counter, Bergeron said she hasn’t heard of her clients buying Narcan before they used heroin as a fail-safe.
“It doesn’t really make sense, because if you’re using, and you’re afraid that you might overdose, and you bought Narcan, you would need someone to administer it to you,” Bergeron said.
Narcan is a small weapon to battle the opioid epidemic, Bergeron said.
“Harm reduction is kind of meeting a person where they’re at. So if keeping them alive with Narcan after there’s an overdose, that’s certainly harm reduction, because they’re alive,” Bergeron said. “That person may not be ready for treatment.”
American Medical Response said 14 people died last month in Manchester alone of suspected opioid overdoses. It is a new record.
Filed under: General Problems
Well people, you can’t have it both ways! So what if a dealer has Narcan available? A dealer may be with a person when they shoot up and maybe they are using it as a marketing tool…isn’t this what everyone has been screaming about, to save lives, prevent overdoses? Think about it, the dealer wants to save their life, too; repeat customers and profits….Personally, I hope they are offering Narcan…the entire solution to the problem involves the models of addiction in other countries, such as Portugal. 10 yrs ago, I never, ever, thought I would say make it all legal….however, with making all substances legal comes with the dirty words “harm reduction” meaning less disease spread, treatment availability with a future, less imprisonment, less drug cartels, less corrupt employees…..more lives saved, more people working and contributing income to our treasury, more children with parents, and the big one: chronic pain patients who need meds to have a quality of life will not be denied access to them and the DEA can be dissolved, as another agency can absorb the leftover work that will be needed to track drugs. Going to be interesting to see all the craziness from everyone when Narcan becomes financially available for anyone to afford to purchase OTC! I am all for it….