Local first responders see uptick in Narcan use

NORTHEAST FLORIDA — Right now we're seeing an increase locally in the use of a drug that reverses an opioid overdose in a matter of minutes.

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At age 18, Ben Smith's future looked bright.

He had a full scholarship to Martin Methodist College in Tennessee, but a car accident derailed his dreams.

Smith fractured three vertebrae and was prescribed Lortab, a painkiller.

“I was only allowed like 11 days out of school, so I had to take the pills and go to class and that's how I got introduced to opioids,” Smith said.

A path of addiction led him to OxyContin and eventually even harder drugs.

“It's honestly like you get hijacked,” Smith said.

He spent the last four years of his life in and out of rehab centers.

“It takes your life over and you don't even realize it's happening,” he said.

In January, Smith overdosed on heroin and collapsed in the shower.

When his father found him, his body was cold and his face had turned blue.

It was another drug, naloxone, that not only brought him back – it saved his life.

“I guess they gave me like two shots of that in the leg and I came back to, and there were paramedics and cops in the house. It was a really scary thing,” he said.

I dug through data across our area and discovered first responders are using naloxone more than ever.

In Duval County, the numbers have more than doubled from 1,118 in 2015 to 2,949 in 2019.

St.  Johns County's use of the drug increased by a third over that span from 224 in 2015 to 319 in 2019.

In Clay County,  emergency medical technicians have used the drug about 433 times so far this year compared with 432 in 2015.

The typical cost of naloxone can range from $20 to $60 per dose according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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In St. Johns County, all the vehicles in the sheriff's office and the fire rescue department carry Narcan.

“When you overdose on opioids you can stop breathing, and we've had patients that are right at that precipice, and we've given them Narcan, and they've come back,” Dr. Kerry Bachista, associate medical director for St. Johns County Fire and Rescue, said.

Right now, Smith is at the Beaches Recovery Center in Jacksonville Beach trying to get his life back on track.

Smith says his overdose was a wake-up call.

“I work for my dad -- we've got a shop in Tennessee -- and I would hate to, you know, not be able to take that over one day,” Smith said.

He's hoping his story will push others struggling with addiction to do the same.

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