Statewide Initiative To Make Narcan Available To All 1st Responders At Walmart

CLEARWATER, FL — Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody stopped by the Clearwater Police Department Tuesday morning to announce the launch of the state's Helping Heroes initiative.

In conjunction with Walmart, this initiative will supply police, firefighters and other first responders with free naloxone (narcan), which reverses the effect of fentanyl and other opioids, saving the lives of those who have overdosed.

She said first responders will be able to go into Walmart, show their identification and replenish their supplies of naloxone.

"Fentanyl has had a tremendous effect on the lives of so many across this nation," said Moody. "We are living in a new time, a new age, where we have a poison in such volume and so potent in our nation that we have to fight it accordingly."

She said the latest statistics show 100,000 people in the country died in one year due to drug overdoses, "and we don't see that slowing down," Moody said. "The number of fentanyl overdose deaths nationwide more than tripled over the last five years. It's the No. 1 killer of Americans age 18 to 45. In Florida, 23 people die from an opioid overdose every day."

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently reported that one out of six fentanyl pills contain a lethal dose, Moody said.

"Last year, the Clearwater Police Department responded to 294 overdoses, which is a 14 percent increase," said Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter. "We investigated 58 fatal overdoses, which is a 7 percent increase from the previous year."

And, behind those statistics are real people, said Slaughter, like the teenage daughter who came home from school and discovered her 49-year-old mother overdosing on fentanyl or the 10-year-old child who called 911 to report that both her parents had overdosed.

"Both are real stories about real people who were saved by naloxone," Slaughter said. "To beat addiction, they have to survive, and this steady supply of naloxone is critical to that mission."

Clearwater Police Cpl. Ashley Hinkebein can testify to the drug's life-saving impact. Last May, she and a fellow officer were on routine patrol when they were called to a home. They encountered a woman doing chest compressions on a man laying in the street dying from a fentanyl overdose.

Hinkebein promptly administered naloxone, which attaches to opioid receptors and reverses the effect of fentanyl or other opioids, instantly saving the man's life.

Last year, said Moody, 50,000 doses of naloxone were administered around the state and, with the Helping Heroes Initiative, she expects to double that number.

For information on the Helping Heroes Initiative, click here.