With eight fatal overdoses reported in the city of Schenectady during the first week of July alone, Schenectady County is joining regional efforts to distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan.
The cluster of overdoses has prompted officials to take steps to inform residents about resources for treatment and prevention services, and the immediate ways that they can protect their health and safety. Police say deaths that have occurred across the city are believed to have been caused by the use of various substances, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and xylazine. Schenectady County Public Health Director Keith Brown says occasional upticks in overdoses are not unusual.
"We've seen this before, it really is directly tied to the unpredictable nature of the drug supply, the illicit drug supply, and that we've been seeing substances like fentanyl and xylazine, making their way into the drug supply, which makes using very unpredictable in that it's incredibly difficult to know how strong or potent are specific batches, and what the overdose risk is," said Brown. "And then we've also seen those substances make their way into the cocaine supply, for example, where people who use cocaine don't generally have an expectation that there would be an overdose risk associated with cocaine use, like you would with opioid use."
Schenectady City Council President Marion Porterfield is alarmed.
"From the public point of view, and from even the councilor point of view, that really the most we can do is point people in the direction of the services that are available to them, to individuals who are addicted, or family members of individuals who are addicted, to try to get them some help," Porterfield said. "My other concern is that if the drugs that are coming into the community, laced with other things, which are causing so many overdoses in such a short period of time."
Schenectady County Public Health Services and New Choices Recovery Center will be hosting a free training and information session at 6 p.m. Thursday at Central Library on Clinton Street.
Brown said "It's open to anyone in the community. And so we're really encouraging anybody whether people might use themselves or be a family member, or friend, or just somebody who might, who might be able to respond as a community bystander to an overdose to attend, everybody trained will get a free Naloxone kit, and will be empowered and trained on how to use it."
Brown says he'd like to see everyone in the general public receive training in its use, which could save lives.
"You never know when you might, when you might come across somebody who's experiencing an overdose. A lot of times people will tell us stories about how they were trained. And they threw the kit in their bag and didn't really think of it. And then they were on a bus or somewhere else and somebody was experiencing an overdose and they were able to respond. And, and that's what we really want to see," said Brown.
Brown says making Naloxone widely available is probably the best chance of preventing more overdose deaths.
