Since 2014, New Jersey emergency medical technicians and police officers have administered the anti-opioid overdose drug naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, more than 18,000 times, according to data compiled by the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety and relayed by NJ Advanced Media.
Thus far in 2016, Narcan has been deployed an average of 21.8 times a day, putting it on pace to be used almost 8,000 times by the end of the year. New Jersey's Narcan usage figures don't exactly mirror the number of overdoses in the state, as many overdose victims often require multiple doses of the drug.
Narcan is typically administered as a nasal spray to an individual overdosing on opioids. The drug blocks opioid receptors in the brain and can incite recovery in seconds. Even when administered Narcan, not everyone who overdoses survives.
Heroin laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin, has been linked to the rising rates of opioid overdose deaths in New Jersey.
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