The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has called Utah’s current crisis with opioid overdoses and deaths an epidemic. With the rates of deaths from overdose well beyond that of motor vehicle collisions and firearms, the Basin can see why that is. This last Saturday, 50 plus people took part in the Naloxone training offered at the conference center. Naloxone helps stop opioid overdoses by binding to the receptors and stops the flooding of dopamine to the brain. The public should be aware that it is not just those that have addictions that suffer from overdose. A featured guest at the event Dr. Jennifer Plum, currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah, spoke about a time that four children under the age of 5, all from different households, ended up at the ER in the same day because of accidental overdoses on opioids. One thing to note is that even if someone is unresponsive for a reason other than opioid overdose, using Naloxone is not expected to cause additional harm. Also the drug will help for 30-90 minutes, giving people enough time to get to the ER. To learn more, visit
www.utahnaloxone.org
. For a free kit, contact Amy Richards at 1-801-745-5101. Richards has been an advocate for this cause, helping plan Saturday’s event and continuing to distribute the kits.
