Sal Bellucci, RN, CARN and Scott Blue, RN, CARN spoke at a recent Rotary Meeting about the dangers and escalation of opioid addiction gripping our region and the nation.
They cited the 2017 statistic that there were an average of 192 overdoses per day.
This led to the start of an organization and website to combat this scourge; www.192aday.org.
Both men are detox nurses with expertise in the use of Narcan, the trade name for the drug naloxone, which is an antidote for opioid overdoses.
One dose of Narcan literally keeps the affected person breathing after an overdoes of opioids depresses the respiratory system.
“The fentanyl crisis has hit us hard,” Bellucci said.
He said the addictive quality of the drugs, including pain killers such as oxycodone, codeine and morphine, along with heroin, is so strong that people will literally raid their family members medicine cabinets looking for pills.
They cautioned those using pain killers for legitimate reasons to keep them out of reach to others.