Nonprofit Project Opioid announced on Monday that overdoses have finally fallen and the wide availability of naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, is the reason why.
For the past 6 years, Project Opioid has been pushing police departments, mayors, commissioners, churches and hospitals – the people with influence – across Florida to study the overdose crisis and take action to solve it.
Project Opioid’s research revealed 2022 was the first year Florida saw a decrease in opioid deaths of around 2%. Orange and Seminole Counties, however, saw a decrease of more than 11%.
Project Opioid CEO Andrae Bailey credited naloxone.
“There is no factor in a community that reduces death more correlated with naloxone distribution,” Bailey said.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma, who chairs the Attorney General’s Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement, said he’s seen a shift “from public safety professionals having to deploy this [naloxone] to now citizens actually doing it.”
The University of Central Florida has been ahead of the curve when it comes to naloxone availability and accessibility.
Every single time a campus police officer responds to a call of an overdose, the officer carries the life-saving, overdose-reversing naloxone and it almost always brings the victim back to life.
And since 2022, UCF students have started keeping naloxone in their dorms and they’re using it before police even arrive.
At UCF Health Services, students can pick up a double dose of Narcan for free.
According to UCF Student Health Services Programs Manager Crystal Zavallo, 471 students and staff have received Narcan for free from Health Services.
“We also invited the nonprofit group PARS to our tailgating events on campus during football season to distribute free Narcan and resources there as well,” Zavallo said. “They’ve told me their presence has been very well received at these events and that they’ve had some great conversations with students and parents alike!”
Zavallo added the largest success “has been the acceptance of this life-saving medication and awareness of our community to feel prepared to help should they ever need to help a fellow knight in need.”
Due to naloxone’s success, Project Opioid’s Bailey announced an expansion of naloxone availability.
“This is just the beginning,” Bailey said. “We’re going to have over 100 companies partner with us this year, we have QR codes and so any company can use a QR code and sign up for business engagement program and we can train them and teach them right in their HR department to make naloxone available to anyone who is struggling.”
Bailey announced:
- Launch of a “Recovery Ready Workplace” program for Central Florida businesses and a program for HR professionals in collaboration with the Greater Orlando Society for Human Resource Management (GOSHRM)
- A largescale expansion of Project Opioid’s Naloxone distribution efforts
- A new partnership with Orange County to offer fentanyl test strips in the downtown area
- “Breaking Thru,” a pioneering mental health initiative addressing the challenges facing Gen Z and millennials
And at UCF, the Narcan giveaway continues. Anyone associated with the University can come to Health Services and receive two doses of Narcan, without a prescription, no questions asked, for free.