The public line of defense against fentanyl-laced drugs begins today.
On April 25, the Coalition for Community Safety (CCS) is launching its training to recognize drug overdoses, administer emergency medication like Narcan and perform CPR. The training is aimed at Cincinnati bar and nightlife workers who frequently deal with people who are on substances, but the public is welcome to join, as well.
“This is the first event of its kind in the entire country. Cincinnati is well on the way to leading the nation in the harm reduction department. This comes by way of ‘boots on the ground’ action AND educating the public on how to combat the opioid crisis head on,” the Coalition for Community Safety says in an April 24 Instagram post.
The training will be held at 2:30 p.m. April 25 at Somerset, 139 E. McMicken Ave. in Over-the-Rhine. The training is free but donations are accepted.
Narcan is a brand of naloxone, the nasal spray used to stop a drug overdose, which appears to be happening more frequently due to bad-batch drugs. According to Harm Reduction Ohio, a nonprofit that tracks Ohio drug data, 35.9% of Ohio’s illicit drugs contained fentanyl in the last quarter of 2021 — a 10% increase from earlier in the year. AmandaLynn Reese, director of outreach and engagement for Harm Reduction Ohio, said supplies of common party drugs — like cocaine — laced with fentanyl have been sneaking up on those who casually take hits.
Officials from Harm Reduction Ohio say that around 5,300 Ohioans died of an overdose in 2021, and 1,497 of those deaths were cocaine related. Data from the Ohio Department of Health on mortality shows that at least 1,083 of those cocaine deaths were caused by laced fentanyl.
Hamilton County is one of Ohio’s top 10 counties for overdose deaths as a result of cocaine, according to data analyzed by Harm Reduction Ohio. Reese says that at least 15.2% of the cocaine examined by the state’s crime lab contained fentanyl in 2021, so there is no way to know what you’re buying without testing.
Party drugs frequently are taken in the restrooms of nightlife venues, so bartenders and lounge managers often deal with the aftermath. As detailed in CityBeat’s April 6 cover story by Madeline Fening, those bar staff are now being trained on how to spot overdoses and what to do in emergencies. Noam Barnard, an organizer for the Coalition for Community Safety, says that bars have been reaching out to the organization for guidance and supplies. CCS provides both naloxone and fentanyl detection strips to nightlife managers in an effort to prevent overdose deaths.
Naloxone is the only thing that will stop an overdose that’s in progress, but Barnard says fentanyl test strips are the other necessary piece of the harm reduction equation.
”There’s been situations where someone is secretly doing party drugs where they aren’t supposed to, and suddenly someone’s experiencing a fentanyl overdose,” he says. “The test strips are there so if you happen to be engaging in an activity like that, at least take a few minutes and test it and make sure you’re not going to accidentally die.”
Find more information about the April 25 Narcan training at Somerset on the Coalition for Community Safety’s Instagram account. After that, read Fening’s CityBeat cover story about how bar managers are forming a line of defense against fentanyl deaths in Cincinnati.
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This article appears in Apr 20 – May 3, 2022.