NARCAN THE PANACEA ONLY TO HEROIN JUNKIES

Narcan is part of the larger marvel that our medical community refuses to
give up on addicts.

It's hard to know what to say to someone freshly back from the dead.
Welcome to heaven? To purgatory? "Welcome back to the hell you've made of
your life" may be more fitting for heroin addicts rescued by the lifesaving
drug Narcan.

Ask anyone working the downtown eastside - resurrected addicts are rarely
thankful. Heroin highs are so intensely satisfying that interrupting one,
even a lethal overdose, tends to earn curses.

Naloxone hydrochloride, or Narcan, attacks the narcotic, scavenging heroin
from brain receptors in the brain so quickly that recipients progress in
seconds from not breathing to uttering profanity.

The transition is so sudden that paramedics recently had to change
procedure. Subcutaneous, under-the-skin injections now bring subjects up
more gradually (three to four minutes) than when Narcan was given
intravenously. Less time is wasted searching for unravaged veins, less
blood (possible bearing contagion) is spilled, subjects are less likely to
lash out.

Typically they're eager to depart in search of new lows, which is
problematic: Narcan works for about 20 minutes, while heroin lingers for
hours. For a while, the user will be so clear-headed that withdrawal
symptoms may be felt, but the heroin won't be gone, and respiratory
collapse often returns once the Narcan wears off.

What to do when an addict refuses to believe this? Police are allowed to
take charge of those mentally ill enough to cause themselves harm, but
calling addictive urges a form of insanity is risky in skid-row
environments. Addicts and their advocates have enough time on their hands
for handbill campaigns as well as placard-waving protests and they're not
shy about attacking others.

Heroin has become so cheap it's increasingly substituted for cocaine, which
can be fatal to addicts with no heroin tolerance. That affordability makes
a dose of Narcan (about $28) worth three times the price of the drug it
counteracts. St. Paul's hospital administered Narcan over 450 times last
year alone, bringing the total to more than $13,000 for one facility.

Addicts arrive in need of Narcan continually; many have been fished out of
next life 30 times and more than one paramedic recalls beginning a recent
evening shift saving a life with the drug, then closing the shift by saving
the same life again.

Local prostitutes have been innovative, injecting their clients with heroin
overdoses, robbing them, then dialing 911 to bring on the Narcan. Johns,
anticipating cocaine-heightened sexual extremes, are instead receiving
heroin and glimpses into eternity.

Though the drug is essentially harmless, only doctors and paramedics are
qualified to inject it. Distinguishing heroin overdose from other ills in
an area where unconsciousness can mean anything requires more than simple
willingness to push a plunger.

It has been said that Narcan generates crime, by ending highs and leaving
users with fresh cravings. In truth,, Narcan is a marvel, and part a larger
marvel - the fact that our medical community refuses to give up on addicts.

It's time the rest of society fought for these people to help them become
drug-free, rather than patting them on the head and crying out for
legalizing narcotics.