How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
SARATOGA COUNTY — It is a 10-minute discussion that can save a life. And it is offered free of charge.
“The level of overdoses we’ve seen the past couple of years…
we haven’t experienced this before in my 30 years,” says Saratoga County Health & Services Committee chairman Phil Barrett. “It crosses every demographic- age, gender, economics.”
On this day, Barrett is standing in a parking lot adjacent to the county building complex in Ballston Spa. He is flanked by a multitude of county health department workers wearing bright blue windbreakers that showcase the county seal and manning similarly draped tables where walk-ins are provided a 10-minute-long, one-on-one training session about administering nasal Narcan. The overdose reversal drug (Naloxone) works on opioids such as heroin, prescription pain medications and fentanyl.
Since January Saratoga County’s Department of Health has conducted more than 30 training events and distributed more than 3,400 two-dose Narcan kits across the county.
During the sessions, participants are trained to recognize an opioid overdose and how to administer nasal Narcan. The training takes about 10 minutes and participants receive a Certificate of Completion that states they have been trained in the use of naloxone for the purpose of preventing death from an opioid overdose. They are also given a free Narcan rescue kit, which includes two doses of Narcan, a rescue breathing face shield, a certificate of training, a drug disposal system, and a mental health and substance use disorder resource guide.
“The availability of drugs has always been there, but now you have an increased availability of cheap drugs that are extremely harmful, more harmful than we’ve ever seen,” Barrett says.
Less than six months into 2023, there have been more than one dozen fatalities in Saratoga County and about 250 countywide overdoses overall. The age-range: as young as 13, as old as 73. And that’s only the ones that have been reported. Over the previous five years, approximately 250 known drug-related overdose fatalities have occurred in Saratoga County.
“Each individual that attends one of these events you can save a life with everything you learn. That’s really the goal – to get as much information and resources to people directly in our communities.”
Nationwide, more than 101,000 reported fatal overdoses occurred in the 12-month period ending in October 2022, primarily driven by synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl, according to the FDA.
“We know this is a huge issue nationally, statewide, locally,” said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Theodore Kusnierz. “The numbers tell the tale. We’re seeing increases every year in opioid overdoses, so In Saratoga County we’ve made fighting the scourge of opioids our top priority. Now that we’ve transitioned from the COVID-19 pandemic now we can focus particularly on this issue.”
Some of the ways the county is addressing the issue includes earmarking nearly $1 million – it has received about $900,000 in opioid settlement money to date – in what Kuznierz calls a multi-prong approach” which includes the Saratoga County Health Department, the Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, and the county Sheriff’s office in providing assistance for prevention, education, and treatment.
Specifically, the county has initiated a comprehensive, near real-time substance-use surveillance dashboard to help response efforts in combatting the opioid epidemic - at Savealifeto.day - authorized the spending of $50,000 to purchase a mass spectrometer – which rapidly detects specific substances involved in overdoses - and stages Narcan training and distribution events.
“We’ve seen the numbers and we know that they are not trending down, that’s for sure,” Kusnierz said. “I should point out that these are only reported cases. We know there are other cases that are not reported, so the numbers are even higher.”
An additional method of helping prevent drug overdoses and reducing harm involves Fentanyl test strips, or FTS. The small strips of paper can detect the presence of Fentanyl - an opioid 50-100 times more potent than heroin and morphine - in various different kinds of drugs. It is unclear whether the county has, or will have FTS, and make them available to the general public.
Narcan nasal spray was first approved by the FDA in 2015 as a prescription drug.
Currently, the State DOH provides the nasal spray to local health departments at no charge so they can provide training and free distribution of Narcan to their communities.
Six weeks ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of Narcan nasal spray for over-the-counter, nonprescription, use. It is the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription. When it does make its way onto the shelves of neighborhood stores, however, the cost of the nasal spray may get pricey. The county plans to continue to distribute the kits free of charge for as long as they have them.
For upcoming Saratoga County DOH training and distribution events, go to: www.saratogacountyny.gov/narcan.
