The Lompoc Valley Medical Center’s Emergency Department is now distributing free doses of Naloxone, also known as Narcan.
Naloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
As part of the California Department of Health Care Services’ Naloxone Distribution Program, the hospital received 48 boxes of Naloxone that include two doses each.
Anyone who is at risk of an opioid overdose or who is a family member, friend or anyone in a position to assist a person at risk, may go to LVMC’s Emergency Department and request a free box. That person must be willing to learn the basic elements of overdose prevention and how to administer Naloxone nasally. The hospital will also make note of the date, the person’s age and whether they have, or the person they’re concerned about, has overdosed in the past.
According to LVMC officials, 28 percent of the adult patients treated at the hospital’s Emergency Department have a substance use disorder. They say statistics also show that the Lompoc Valley has a significant population of people who use opioids and stimulants who are now being unexpectedly exposed to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
According to Project Opioid Santa Barbara County, preliminary numbers show that in Santa Barbara County, there were more than 133 overdose deaths between January 2021 and January 2022. Fentanyl-involved deaths in the county increased 81 percent since 2019, and fentanyl was present in 50.4 percent of the drug overdose deaths in the county in 2021. According to Project Opioid, 28 people died of overdose in Lompoc in 2021.
