Pacific Pride partnership with Santa Barbara police saves lives using drug reversal spray

A collaboration involving the Pacific Pride Foundation and the Santa Barbara Police department is saving lives and offering options when seconds separate life and death.

“There were tears actually from many of our staffers that we were part of an educational process that allowed someone to have their life saved,” said Patrick Lyra Lanier with the Pacific Pride Foundation.

That life was saved on Miramonte drive in Santa Barbara recently when a woman having a drug overdose was found on the ground, and suffering from what could have been a deadly reaction.

The Santa Barbara Police department had just been trained in the reversal spray Narcan. The first officer on the scene used two doses. It is a nasal spray. The woman survived.

The training and Narcan were part of a partnership with Pacific Pride that just came together.

“For a while now we’ve bene providing Narcan for folks (in their office) as we have seen the opioid crisis becoming quite an issue,” said Lanier .

The Narcan is normally $60-$80.00 a box. It is free for the public similar to a needle exchange program through Pacific Pride.

“The goal of which is to be supporting people who might be using opioid drugs and try to help them to stay safe, alive, healthy, so they can have that turning point and maybe improve their lives for the better,” said Lanier.

Santa Barbara Police have more than 140 Narcan kits ready.
In 2018 the outreach countywide has been widespread and effective,

Lanier said, “we distributed in the last year 1200 kits and there’re two doses per kit so there’s 2400 doses in the last year, and we have reversed 292 confirmed reversals of opioid deaths.”

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s department also has the Narcan and has reported several saves in Isla Vista in the past year.

Pacific Pride says it has Narcan available in
its offices in Lompoc and Santa Maria Wednesdays from 4-6 p.m. and in Alameda Park in Santa Barbara during an outreach effort Thursday evening from 5-7 p.m.

“We are here if they need refills, or they need other sets if they are using them and that we are here as well for any education around the opioid crisis.”

For more information go to: https://pacificpridefoundation.org/

Opioid drugs include:

Codeine (only available in generic form)
Fentanyl (Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora, Abstral, Onsolis)
Hydrocodone (Hysingla, Zohydro ER)
Hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)
Hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Exalgo)
Meperidine (Demerol)
Methadone (Dolophine, Methadose)

KEYT 2019