HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - It goes by a few names in Huntington - "dog food" or "food," "boy," or sometimes just "H."
Heroin and drugs like it - opiates and opioids - have become an epidemic in rural areas across the U.S., but in Cabell County and Huntington, the problem is unprecedented: the overdose rate in Cabell County tripled from 2014 to 2015, when the county averaged two and a half overdoses every day. About 70 of those overdoses resulted in death, and the county averaged one overdose death about every five days, according to the Mayor's Office of Drug Control Policy.
Donna Donovan knows too well the dangers of opioid overdose - her son, John Watson, died three months ago of a heroin overdose, the first of the city's "deadliest week" of overdoses for the year. He was 29.
"Huntington's claim to fame as the 'Overdose Capital of the U.S.' is sad," she said. "However, from what I've seen in the community, they're leading the forefront in recovery."
Donovan, herself 27 years sober, was one of more than a dozen recovery coaches, pharmacists, students and citizens who were at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department on Wednesday to learn how to administer naloxone, the opiate antagonist that has gained attention in recent years as anther tool to combat the alarming number of overdoses in the Mountain State.
Charles Babcock, an assistant professor at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy, led Wednesday's training, which tackled how to administer different forms of the drug, as well as how to spot an opioid or opiate overdose. The training is another facet of the health department's harm reduction program, which includes a syringe exchange, recovery referrals, testing and education. In February, the health department received a donation of 2,200 units of naloxone auto-injectors from a Virginia company, and those who complete the health department training are eligible to receive an auto-injector.
"It's important to get this drug out there," said Dr. Michael Kilkenny, health officer for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. "We started dispensing this on Feb. 3, and we had our first confirmed save on the 12th - not 10 days later, the drug that we dispensed had saved a life. That's a big deal."
Naloxone is administered by injecting it into the muscle, vein or under the skin, or by spraying it into the nose with an atomizer. Babcock trains in the use of both intranasal naloxone and the naloxone auto-injector, though the nasal spray is less expensive and is covered by West Virginia Medicaid. Those who complete the hour-long training can then receive a prescription for the drug from the health department.
"All this drug does is save a life," Babcock said. "Because you can't recover if you're dead."
Last year, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill to allow police, firefighters and friends and family members to administer naloxone to people overdosing on heroin or prescription pain pills. Previously, only paramedics, doctors and other medical professionals could legally administer the medication.
This year, bipartisan legislation would take the law a step further by allowing the sale of naloxone as an over-the-counter drug, and on Wednesday, Babcock held another training for pharmacists employed by Fruth Pharmacy, which hopes to have its pharmacists ready to train people to administer the drug should it become legal to dispense over the counter.
"The governor's bill requires pharmacists to do training ... a lot of pharmacists don't have a ton of experience with naloxone. It's not something we dispense every day," said Tim Weber, vice president of Fruth. "What we wanted to do with this training is remove some of the stigma, similar to things like birth control in the past, and help them potentially rethink it."
Opiate overdoses kill by depressing the respiratory system, causing users to suffocate. A person who is overdosing is unresponsive, even to pain, and may have blue lips or fingertips and dilated pupils. The average response time for emergency medical services in Huntington is between 10 and 15 minutes, Babcock said - enough time to die "at least twice" from lack of oxygen.
"One dose of naloxone and they're breathing again within two minutes, five minutes at maximum," he said. "It takes that opiate and kicks it right off the brain ... that's why this drug becomes so important to have on site."
Naloxone itself doesn't have any adverse side effects, Babcock said, but it will cause withdrawal symptoms, and the drug only works to reverse an overdose cause by opiates - it will not help someone who has overdosed on cocaine, LSD, benzodiazepines, ecstasy, tranquilizers or marijuana.
Babcock will continue to hold free trainings at the Huntington health department every Wednesday, and has planned a training for Kanawha-Charleston Health Department employees on March 17.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.