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Ashland police officers are now carrying Narcan (naloxone) kits that immediately bring opioid overdose victims back from the edge of death. Officers received the kits a month ago and were trained on how to administer Narcan to reverse the effects of heroin, oxycodone, morphine, opium and other opioids. Officers insert a small tube of Narcan in an atomizer cap and spray it in the nose of the victim. “Use (of opioids) is on the rise, and Ashland has a noticeable problem,” says police Chief Tighe O’Meara. Firefighter/paramedics have been using Narcan for a couple of decades, says Ashland Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief David Shepherd, but police often arrive first on an overdose call, especially in rural areas. When police spot overdose symptoms — shallow breathing or gasping, blue lips and nails — they now can administer Narcan and get rapid results, says Ashland police Deputy Chief Warren Hensman. Patients go into immediate withdrawal. “It’s not pleasant," Hensman says. "It’s like going from zero to 160. You just took someone off an addiction. They can be very active and upset real fast, so, from our own safety standpoint, we have to be ready to restrain the individual. They’re going from a high high to withdrawal, which is not a happy place.” Often, the drug user can be taken to a recovery program, says Hensman. “If we only save one life a year or every five years, it’s a great success,” he adds. Ashland police have not used the Narcan kits yet. Medford police have been using them since January, and as of late August they had reversed nine overdoses. Ashland sees some years with no overdoses and some with four, maybe up to 10, says Hensman, adding that “Ashland doesn’t see the amount of opioid overdoes as the rest of the county.” However, Ashland Fire & Rescue administers Narcan an average of three times a month, notes Shepherd. “We look for inability to breathe. You can’t do that very long without brain damage. Pinpoint eye pupils is another sign of overdose,” he says. “The drug (Narcan) is cheap, effective and benign, so it doesn’t cause any damage if we get the diagnosis wrong.” Narcan reverses life-threatening depression of brain and lung activity in under three minutes and its effects last 45 to 90 minutes. After that, the Narcan literature warns, police or paramedics have to watch out for the patient going back into overdose. Narcan “is not going to hurt them, and it’s much better than dying," Hensman says. "It could also be the start of recovery.” Reach Ashland freelance writer John Darling at [email protected].