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In September 2020, Seth Dewey got a phone call at home from someone using drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018Seth, we need Narcan over here right now,\u2019\u201d Dewey said.<\/p>\n
The call for Narcan<\/a><\/u> suggested a life-and-death emergency requiring medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose.<\/p>\n Dewey, whose work for the Reno County Health Department in Hutchinson focuses on combating drug addiction and overdoses, promised to rush over with doses of what\u2019s also known as naloxone to the site where two people panicked as they watched life slipping away from a third.<\/p>\n He urged them to call 911, too, but they feared getting arrested.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I said, \u2018Well, listen, then I\u2019m going to call 911,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I got there, I ended up having to use three doses of naloxone on this individual. \u2026 It brought back very slow, labored breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time law enforcement officers reached the scene \u2014 without any naloxone on hand \u2014 Dewey had stabilized the man. Medical responders arrived later.<\/p>\n For Dewey, that day illustrates the need for policy changes to help more people survive a national surge in opioid overdoses.<\/p>\n Kansas is one of just a few states without a good Samaritan law<\/a><\/u> that encourages people to call 911 when witnessing an overdose, by shielding them from prosecution.<\/p>\n Additionally, Kansans can\u2019t count on law enforcement officers \u2014 who may beat ambulances to the scene of an ongoing overdose when every minute counts \u2014 to carry naloxone.<\/p>\n Across the country, fatal overdoses rocketed in 2020<\/a><\/u> to more than 90,000. That record number was driven largely by dealers selling drugs laced with potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.<\/p>\n Tallies aren\u2019t complete yet for 2021, but provisional counts for the first half of the year suggest people died at even greater rates. And Kansas is among a handful of states showing the steepest increases<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n Studies show most people recover<\/a><\/u> from drug use disorders, but the process often takes years and involves multiple relapses. The widespread practice of mixing fentanyl and carfentanil<\/a><\/u> into so many drugs today means many people never get that far.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re losing too many people due to this old idea that people have to hit rock bottom\u201d before becoming sober, Dewey said. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t getting a chance to hit rock bottom, because they\u2019re dying.\u201d<\/p>\n Someone dies of overdose almost every month in Reno County<\/a><\/u> \u2014 often more than one person.<\/p>\n Yet Dewey sees signs of change. The Reno County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Hutchinson Police Department now train their officers on administering naloxone, and make sure they have it available.<\/p>\n A state good Samaritan law could also help, research suggests. The U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report<\/a><\/u> last year documenting evidence that the rate of fatal opioid overdoses improves when states pass such laws.<\/p>\n Deadly synthetic opioids<\/b><\/p>\n The vast bulk of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil are smuggled from abroad, and increasingly blended with other substances.<\/p>\n That means people sometimes don\u2019t know that the methamphetamine, oxycodone, cocaine or other substances they buy illegally contain synthetic opioids to make them more potent.<\/p>\n Overdosing is easy. Even minuscule amounts of these substances can kill. Fentanyl is up to 50 times<\/a><\/u> more potent than heroin.<\/p>\n This month, a federal commission<\/a><\/u> released its report on synthetic opioids, calling the epidemic of addiction \u201cone of our most-pressing national security, law enforcement, and public health challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n Though most people addicted to the substances get them illegally, the report traces the rise in demand for and trafficking of synthetic opioids directly to wide-scale addiction to OxyContin<\/a><\/u> prescription opiate painkillers starting in the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overdose crisis in the United States claims more lives each year than firearms, suicide, homicide, or motor vehicle crashes,\u201d the report said. \u201cWe must do more as a nation and a government.\u201d<\/p>\n Better access to medical care for opioid addiction won\u2019t stop the drug trafficking, it said, but offers one route to saving lives, as the \u201cgold standard\u201d for treating opioid use disorders.<\/p>\n Buprenorphine and other treatments<\/b><\/p>\n Yet experts at the health care research group Commonwealth Fund say only a small sliver of people with opioid addiction receive such medical care.<\/p>\n The treatment usually involves prescribing one of three medications \u2014 buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone \u2014 to ease cravings and even block the brain\u2019s ability to experience euphoria from drugs like heroin and oxycodone.<\/p>\n Sometimes people who want this help struggle to find a health care provider and treatment program that they can afford. Sometimes they face insurance hurdles.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, access to drug treatment behind bars remains spotty at best, even though most incarcerated people have substance use disorders.<\/p>\n Despite some successful lawsuits, as well as federal legislation, pushing for widespread access to this treatment in correctional facilities, most people with addiction in prison or jail still don\u2019t receive it.<\/p>\n In Kansas, a few jails<\/a><\/u> have begun allowing medical care with buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone. Since Crawford County Jail rolled out its program in August 2020, more than 200 people have signed up for care, and most continued their treatment after leaving jail.<\/p>\n