OVERDOSE RECOVERY DRUG WILL BE DISTRIBUTED LOCALLY

A medication able to reverse the effects of a heroin overdose will
be distributed next month on the North Shore as part of a state
program aimed at reducing the number of drug-related deaths.

CAB Health & Recovery Services of Danvers will be provided Narcan by
the state Department of Public Health. Two doses of the medicine,
which counteracts a potentially deadly overdose within minutes, will
be included in kits given to heroin addicts.

"We're thrilled that the Department of Public Health is doing this,"
said Kevin Norton, president of CAB. "It's one more tool in our
toolbox that we get to use."

Norton said CAB's outreach to drug users incorporates "harm
reduction" education that includes vein care, prevention of HIV and
Hepatitis C, and CPR training. Narcan will supplement CAB's outreach efforts.

"It becomes part of the safety net," Norton said.

The majority of overdoses aren't suicide attempts - they're
accidents, Norton said. Narcan, which has been used in hospital
emergency rooms and by paramedics for years, will "absolutely" save
lives, he said. It will keep addicts alive until they are ready to
accept treatment.

"Recovery is the ultimate goal, but we have to take a lot of small
steps before we can get to that big step," Norton said.

CAB staffers will teach addicts how to administer Narcan, which is
ingested in a mist form. One person can squirt it up the nose of
another person who has overdosed.

Heroin attaches itself to receptors in the brain and slows a user's
breathing and heart rate. Within 30 to 90 seconds, Narcan "knocks"
heroin off the receptors, Norton said.

In less than two minutes, the user regains consciousness. He may
throw up or feel nauseous, and his or her body typically aches,
Norton said. But Narcan, known generically as naloxone, causes no
long-term side effects, according to specialists. It effectively
treats any opiate-related overdose.

Critics of providing Narcan to addicts say it prevents or delays
recovery because it gives addicts a sense of invincibility. Norton
said there's no evidence to support that claim, in the same way
there's no basis to assert that handing out condoms to prevent the
spread of HIV increases sexual activity.

"It's not a glamorous life," Norton said, referring to drug addicts.
He said they aren't highly functioning members of society with
normal family and professional lives that Narcan will help them
maintain. "That's a distortion," Norton said.

Narcan saved Denise Hansen's son's life. A police officer told
Hansen that if the medication had been administered "two seconds
later," her son wouldn't have made it.

"I would think it would be a great idea," Hansen, of Peabody, said
about making Narcan more available. "It would save people from overdosing."

Lori Berry, executive director of the Lynn Community Health Center,
said she always comes down on the side of saving a life.

"Clean needles or making Narcan more available does not make people
more likely to abuse heroin," Berry said. "It prevents infection and
prevents a death."

The state's kit campaign is being modeled after a Boston program.
The state estimates its campaign, which is being treated as a test
run, will cost less than $50,000 and enroll 450 users. If it saves
lives, it may be expanded.

Heroin and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts in 2005.
With heroin potent, cheap and easy to get, the problem on the North
Shore is as bad as ever.

It's easier for a 15-year-old to buy illegal drugs than it is to buy
cigarettes, Norton said.

"The North Shore," he said, "has got an opiate epidemic."

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.