Pharmacists hope to get a life-saving medicine for every household in the Adel . community

If there’s one thing that Sumpter pharmacy owner Leslie Herron loves, it’s Adel and the people who live there. That’s part of why she hopes to get Narcan, used to treat drug overdoses in emergencies, into the homes of everyone in the community.

The other reason is because she knows how potentially life-saving it is while waiting for first responders to come and help.

When people think of what causes an overdose, many people first think of heroin or fentanyl. However, overdose does not discriminate.

“When you’re in pain, you’re not thinking clearly,” Herron said. “So it’s very easy to lose track of how much medication you’ve taken.”

That’s when Herron said it was time to pull out the Narcan nasal spray.

“It just needs to be absorbed through the nose because that’s one of the fastest ways to get into the bloodstream,” says Herron.

A law passed in 2016 allows Iowa pharmacists to dispense Narcan to patients over the age of 18.

Herron says she hopes to be able to get them into every house in Adel because Narcan reverses the effects of opiates.

“So opioids come in, you take them, and they bind to a receptor in your body and then they do their job,” Herron said. “What Narcan does is it goes in and it just knocks that opioid out of the receptor like it’s not there anymore.”

“It could be in your house,” says Deborah Krauss, referring to the drug overdose.

Krauss is the director of the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition.

“It could be that you know your nephew, niece or your child,” she said.

Krauss says she knows overdose doesn’t discriminate. Like Herron, she believes it’s important for people to reduce the stigma surrounding Narcan because anyone can get in trouble or save a life.

“There are a lot of people who have never touched a drug in their life and they carry Narcan because you can save a life,” says Krauss.