Camden County to equip its parks with overdose antidote: Here's why

In just the first four months of this year, 117 people in Camden County have lost their lives to overdoses.

But that number, as tragic as it is, could have been much higher: Naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote also known by its brand name Narcan, has been administered 561 times in the county, according to the health department. Statewide, 4,886 doses of naloxone were administered between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2023.

Last year, Camden County schools were all equipped with naloxone; county libraries also have the antidote on hand.

Now, Camden County parks will have naloxone kits, said Commissioner Director Lou Cappelli.

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Equipping parks with naloxone, and training the county's park ambassadors to administer the antidote, came about through a recommendation by the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force, Cappelli said, part of an ongoing effort "to get these boxes wherever we can, including schools, parks, really all public places."

"Folks are using (drugs) in public spaces," Cappelli said. "(The naloxone is) not here to encourage people to use in public parks or libraries, but people who have the disease of addiction will use wherever they can. This isn't about where they use. This is about saving lives, and in today's world, this is what we need to do to save lives."

Many of those overdoses are due to fentanyl, which has infiltrated most of the supply of street drugs, said Caryelle Lasher, director of Camden County's Department of Health.

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"We’re seeing fentanyl in most street drugs," she explained. "A lot of synthetic substances are in street drugs; it’s in everything now. That’s what makes (access to Narcan) so crucial."

Fentanyl, which is far more potent than heroin and other opioids, can sometimes require more than one dose of Narcan to revive someone from an overdose. The reversal is temporary, buying valuable time for first responders to get a person to a hospital or to administer additional aid.

The boxes are now in eight Camden County park locations, including clubhouses at Newton Lake Park and Timber Creek Park,

Other sites include New Brooklyn Park in Winslow and Wiggins Waterfront Park and Marina in Camden.

Also: The Parks Department's building in Cherry Hill's Maria Barnaby Greenwald Park, the county's driving range on the Cooper River, and in the restrooms and Boathouse at Cooper River.

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The medication, administered as a nasal spray, needs to be stored within a climate-controlled facility, so county officials are still working to figure out how to equip parks that don't have clubhouses, permanent restrooms or other buildings. It's stored in locked boxes that can be accessed by sliding the glass out of the way — or breaking it with a small hammer that's connected to the box.

The cost, approximately $6,000 to equip public spaces including schools, parks and libraries, will come from Camden County's share of settlements with pharmaceutical companies over the latter's role in the opioid epidemic.

In Burlington County, officials on June 15 announced plans to use settlement funds to put "overdose emergency kits" with Naloxone in high schools. The county also will provide training to coaches, teachers and other school faculty on the safe administration of the drug.

Camden County is planning to expand its efforts, Lasher said.

"We're working to have naloxone in all of our boarding homes, group homes, social service organizations... anywhere people might seek out services."

The county health department is also working with the sheriff's department, prosecutor's office and municipal law enforcement agencies to identify places where drug use is common, as well.

"We're doing our best to have it anywhere it might be needed," said Lasher. "People in our department have already saved lives just by being out in the community and we want anyone to be able to do that, too.

"It should be a natural reaction for someone to know where it is, how to use it and to save a life. It's an opportunity for all of us to watch out for one another."

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has called the region home since 1971. Contact her at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @wordsbyPhaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Camden County adding overdose antidote at all parks