At Clovis’ latest City Council meeting on Monday October 17th, a vote to allow the nasal spray Narcan on Clovis’ public transit vehicles was approved 4-0 with the absence of one Mayor Pro-Tem Lynne Ashbeck.
Narcan is the narcotic known to treat known or suspected opioid overdose emergencies, especially when signs of breathing problems arise.
The city of Clovis plans to place Narcan on each public city transit bus moving throughout the city.
Amy Hance, General Services Manager of the City of Clovis spoke before the City Council as the staff member of record and voiced her concerns as to why she believes Narcan should be on those vehicles.
“Part of the public health response, in fact one of the primary tenets of the public health response to the opioid crisis is the easy access to Narcan or Naloxone.”
Hance went on to state that in the past two years Fresno County has had an 81% increase in “overdose deaths.”
Hance believes that with the addition of a Narcan nasal spray on each transit bus, there will be added safety for those who may incidentally overdose on fentanyl.
“The biggest danger for fentanyl is it can be added to other illicit drugs and the user does not know it’s in there.”
The City Council was in agreement with Hance including Councilman Drew Bessinger who called the plan an “excellent idea.” He then told a story about how one of his prior police captains once administered life saving Narcan to an overdosed 17 year old girl two days after receiving his issued shipment.
With this plan, transit employees will have to be trained how to administer Narcan, already having been trained to administer life saving CPR if needed.
Amy Hance feels confident in her staff however, believing in their abilities to administer the life saving drug.
“[Our transit staff] are pretty special and important people, as I told them today in our meeting, ‘If I didn’t trust you to be able to do this program, I wouldn’t even talk to anybody about it.’”
According to Hance, there is also a program like this going on in St. Louis, Missouri, and she believes that this program in the Midwest is about six months ahead of Clovis.
“I’ve been in pretty frequent contact with a colleague who works in St. Louis, Missouri in the public safety department, and he’s doing the same thing we are…he’s got Narcan out with his fire department, he then put it out with his police department and he’s now putting it on his public transit vehicles.”
Mayor Flores on fentanyl overdoses: “A lot of people are not doing it on purpose, it’s just way too much for anyone to ingest and then they die because of it. So they’re not doing it intentionally like an overdose…They’re killing our kids.”
Ultimately the council decided to approve the use and distribution of Narcan to all transit buses with a 4-0 vote to Hance’s pleasure.
“Transit vehicles who are carrying Narcan could be part of a strategy [to save lives].”