In a Wednesday meeting this week, Lewis County commissioners approved up to $55,000 to buy Narcan for first responders, jail staff and other county departments.
Thanks to the Washington Attorney General’s Office settlements between companies the office previously said have “played key roles in fueling the opioid epidemic,” Lewis County is set to receive $2,317,136.16. The first payment of that came in on Dec. 1, 2022, and the commissioners asked their budget administrator to crunch the numbers on stocking county departments, including fire districts, with Narcan.
For the Riverside Fire Authority, a joint service between Lewis County and City of Centralia fire districts, the funds from the settlement will be cut between the two local governments.
A name brand of the generic medicine naloxone, Narcan can be administered nasally to rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdose, often preventing death. With the county outpacing any previous year’s drug-related death rates, according to the coroner, and with what many local law enforcement agencies have called an increased prevalence in the highly-potent opioid fentanyl, the purchase could increase local officials’ abilities to save lives.
In the Lewis County Jail, said Ross McDowell, deputy director of emergency management, demand for Narcan has spiked. Though it wasn’t clear if he meant specifically in the county jail, McDowell said “the record right now is 12 (Narcan) doses on one person” in order to successfully reverse the overdose.
While the medicine is easily accessible over the counter, there are more charges for responding agencies to obtain it, he said.
“It is about quadruple, or four times over (the cost) if you’re going to buy it (as an individual),” McDowell said. “We are on what’s called ‘state bid.’”
When presented with the $53,000 total, the commissioners balked, but did eventually vote unanimously to approve the expenditure.
“If I’m doing the math on that, Ross, it’s almost $24 per dose, is that right?” Commissioner Scott Brummer asked.
Commissioner Lindsey Pollock responded: “Highway robbery.”
Commissioner Sean Swope said the “easy solution is to just go and take out the cartels. Five dollars a pill, $24 to save a life.”
Despite shortages in the nasal spray version of the medicine, the county is hoping to secure that over the intravenous Narcan. Both doses are equally effective, McDowell said, and the nasal spray is much easier to administer, especially for non-law enforcement county employees who will soon have the medicine on-hand in their day-to-day jobs. Whether they choose to administer the medicine in the event of an overdose, Lewis County Public Health & Social Services Director Meja Handlen said, is up to them.
With the proper access and training, they get to make the decision.
McDowell now includes Narcan in his county employee first-aid training, he said.
