North Carolina reverses thousands of drug overdoses amid opioid crisis

Timothy Pratt - The Guardian

A state initiative focused on getting drugs into the hands of current users is receiving national attention for stopping more than 3,000 deaths.

Conner Adams was hanging out at a friend’s house on a recent Sunday when a man and a woman she didn’t know burst in the door and headed straight to the bathroom.

Minutes later, Adams heard screams and crying. The man came into the living room and hastily explained that his girlfriend had a condom inside her body stuffed with about $1,300 worth of heroin – and it wasn’t tied. She had tried to remove as much as possible in the shower, but a large amount of heroin was entering her body, and she was entering a massive overdose.

Adams ran to the bathroom, crouched next to the girl and stuck a needle in her right bicep, shooting naloxone into her veins – a drug that can snatch a person from death as they overdose on opioids such as heroin or prescription painkillers.

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