DOWAGIAC — The Cass County community will soon anonymously have access to free Narcan at Family Fare in Dowagiac.

Family Fare, 56151 S. M-51, Dowagiac, is the only pharmacy in Cass County to be providing free Narcan to the public on Saturday. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Recovery Oriented Systems of Care and the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs partnered to officially mark Aug. 31 as Opioid Awareness Day.

On the national day, Michigan agencies wanted to distribute Naloxone, also called Narcan, free of charge to designated pharmacies throughout the state. Delays in organizing the event postponed the free distribution date to this Saturday. No individual prescription, payment, insurance or name is required. Narcan, which can reverse an opioid overdose, will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis and limited to one per person.

“When people hear of Narcan being used or hear of opioid deaths, they immediately assume it’s because of addiction,” said E.J. McAndrew, a coalition coordinator at the CASS (Cass Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Safety Solutions) Community Coalition. “You can routinely take an opioid and accidentally overdose. Opioids can make you feel dizzy and you can forget you took it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that if you have long-term use of an opioid, that you always have Narcan available.”

Achiles Malta, the regional coordinator for substance use disorder prevention services at Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health, said the free Narcan distribution day was actually first done in New Jersey to raise awareness on opioid overdose and incidents in the state. MDHHS wanted to follow New Jersey’s lead and sent communications to various pharmacies in Michigan that had subscribed to a standing order through the state to carry Narcan.

“It so happens, in Cass County, [Family Fare] had already subscribed to the standing order through the state of Michigan to carry Narcan,” Malta said. “It was already eligible to participate in this initiative.”

Malta echoed McAndrew’s testament about opioid overdoses sometimes being accidental in certain situations.

“While opioids are a very toxic and addictive substance, they have a specific purpose,” Malta said. “When a doctor prescribes [an opioid] to you, typically you don’t have that mindset of danger, because it’s being prescribed by your doctor and you get it from a pharmacy.”

Malta said he has witnessed situations where a person overdosed on a prescribed opioid. After a person’s initial pain persisted, they took an additional dosage and it was enough to cause an overdose.

“It always depends on how resistant the body is and what the specific health conditions are of that person’s body,” Malta said. “Certain health conditions debilitate the body and make it more susceptible to an overdose.”

In Cass County, Malta said law enforcement agencies have gone through a program offered by SWMBH, which provides Narcan kits and training to first responders, so they can intervene in overdose incidents. The program is funded through the OROSC. 

Jason Rutkowske, a detective, is responsible for training members of the Dowagiac Police Department on how to use Narcan. He said he knows opioid overdoses can occur from accidentally taking too many doses, but in Dowagiac, abuse problems are more common.

“For us at Dowagiac, I can’t for sure say we’ve have had someone overdose on the medication side,” Rutkowske said. “I think most of our Narcan uses have been from someone who has had some kind of substance abuse problem.”

Rutkowske said the road patrol unit and ambulance services, who are often the first people to a scene, were some of the first individuals to receive Narcan. Law enforcement officers, later on, were offered the training and kits.

Rutkowske sees Narcan training as an important part of law enforcement’s job.

“Especially with how much we are seeing opioids in Michigan and in the U.S. in general, I know our overdoses have gone up,” Rutkowske said. “Not as much as surrounding counties, but we’ve definitely seen a small increase in overdoses in Cass County in the last five to seven years.”

As the calendar date approaches, Malta hopes families with somebody using opioids, especially as a means of painkillers, has Narcan at home in case of an emergency.

“From a prevention kind of perspective, it is always wise to have Narcan at home,” Malta said.