Local heroin overdoses don't respond to naloxone
Charleston emergency responders were faced with a batch of heroin over the weekend that didn’t respond as usual to the drug meant to reverse overdoses.
Eight people were affected by the overdoses, said Lt. Steve Cooper, the Charleston Police Department’s chief of detectives. One man, a Charleston resident in his early 20s, died.
Cooper said the Narcan, or naloxone, used by first responders to halt the overdoses was less effective than usual. Narcan works by blocking opioids from the brain, and Cooper said it took up to four applications in some of Saturday’s overdose cases.
Paramedics and other emergency responders have been using naloxone to treat overdoses for decades, but police, firefighters and others have recently begun using it. Charleston police began carrying the drug in the fall of 2015. Some local pharmacies are distributing the drug without a prescription.
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