By Meghan Foley
The Keene Sentinel
KEENE, N.H. — N.H. legislation seeking to give communities more tools to deal with the state’s opioid crisis has gotten the attention of the Keene City Council.
Councilors unanimously approved endorsing city staff’s support of House Bill 1619, which seeks to require hospitals in Hillsborough County to document every time someone is treated with naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, and the number of those individuals who accepted or declined a trained recovery coach.
The motion, made Thursday, and which the City Council’s Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee unanimously recommended for approval, included an amendment that the legislation be applied statewide.
The bill is in interim study in the N.H. House of Representatives.
Narcan is the life-saving drug used to help revive people from opioid overdoses.
During January and February, Keene Fire Department personnel responded to 18 suspected opioid overdoses in the city, according to a March 10 news release from the agency. Those overdoses led to Narcan being administered 40 times, the news release said.
The department plans to release overdose and Narcan numbers each month in an effort to inform the public, fire officials said.
As of March 14, 10 people in New Hampshire had died from drug overdoses this year; 86 other deaths are still being investigated, according to the N.H. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Of the 10 confirmed fatal overdoses, seven were caused by an opioid overdose and three from cocaine, the news release said.
In 2015, 428 people died from drug overdoses in New Hampshire; it marks the highest number of drug overdose deaths in the state’s history in a one-year period, according to the news release.
While there was no discussion about the opioid crisis leading up to the Keene City Council’s approval Thursday, there was quite a bit at the committee meeting March 9.
Keene Police Capt. Steve Russo, Fire Chief Mark F. Howard and several city councilors spoke in favor of House Bill 1619 and adding the amendment to make it apply statewide.
At-large city Councilor Randy L. Filiault said anything to slow down the crisis, which he described as an “out of control freight train,” is helpful, according to the committee meeting minutes.
Russo said that he believes having the legislation apply throughout the state is important, especially as programs seeking to help people addicted to drugs become more necessary.
He singled out the Coordinated Access Point Program, which is slated to start this month in Cheshire County.
The pilot program will allow first responders to call to bring in trained recovery coaches after an overdose.
Howard said at the meeting that administrating Narcan is only part of bringing a person back from an overdose. The critical components are rescue breathing for full CPR, he said, which is why emergency responders need to be contacted if someone overdoses.
Each dose of Narcan sold over the counter is about 2 milligrams, and in many cases two of those doses aren’t enough, he said.
Further, he said, first responders don’t always know exactly what is in the opioids people are overdosing on, he said.
Recently, first responders have seen cases where paramedics restore a person’s breathing only to have that person’s heart rate speed up, he said. Heroin doesn’t do that, he said, but hypoxia or an overdose on cocaine could.
That situation is frustrating for paramedics who think they have the tools and knowledge to deal with drug overdoses, he said.
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