Narcan kits help curb opioid overdoses on LI

Daily Point

Wider availability of Naloxone, quicker response helping save lives 

Long Island has boosted the availability of Naloxone, the commonly available brand of the drug known as Narcan, to curb opioid-related overdose deaths, including fentanyl. Data shows that it just might be working.

From 2021 to the end of 2023, a total of 3,244 doses of Narcan were administered on Long Island by emergency medical services, law enforcement and community opioid-overdose prevention programs, according to data from the New York State Department of Health.

Of those, 1,239 were administered in Suffolk County, which has historically had a higher-than-state-average rate of opioid overdose fatalities, while more than 2,000 of the Narcan doses were administered in Nassau County.

During the three years, the data indicates, Narcan administration by emergency services in Suffolk County dropped from a rate of 5.8 per 1,000 unique 911 EMS dispatches in 2021 to 3  per 1,000 dispatches in 2023.

For context, the average rate for New York State was 5.3 in 2021 and 4.7 in 2023. These numbers only include dosage administered by the EMS. Narcan administration in Nassau County also dipped slightly, from a rate of 3.7 per 1,000 dispatches in 2021 to 3 per 1,000 dispatches in 2023.

"Any time the EMT (emergency medical technician) is administering Narcan less, we should take that, not as a victory, but as a positive sign that maybe there are less calls for opioid-use disorders which will require lesser administration of Naloxone," said Steve Chassman, executive director of Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc., or LICADD —  a nonprofit that provides counseling and education, and distributes resources to limit alcohol and substance use impact.

Other experts added that the actual number of Narcan doses administered on Long Island was substantially higher. Wider availability of Naloxone kits through community distribution centers along with growing awareness on how to administer a dose of the life-saving drug have provided quicker assistance, in many cases, before the EMS arrived on the scene. Data is not always available on the number of doses administered in such situations.

Studies show the intranasal drug offers a 93.5% survival rate among recipients by reversing the effects of an opioid-related overdose. Narcan kits have been made available in county buildings, at beaches and in parks with the help of local community groups such as LICADD, which receives boxes of Narcan and fentanyl test strips from the state every other week and distributes them.

In 2021, Suffolk was among the top counties in the state with the highest opioid-related overdose death rate at 30.1 per 100,000 people, higher than the state’s rate of 25.2 per 100,000. Nearly 92% of those deaths in the county were caused by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Overdose deaths have since dropped on Long Island, to a rate of 21 people affected per 100,000 in 2023 in Suffolk and 10.8 in Nassau County, while New York State’s overdose death rate was 22.5 per 100,000.

"One is still too many. We have to look at the data and be encouraged, but realize whatever we’re doing on education and prevention, community awareness, Naloxone distribution needs to continue," Chassman said.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

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Final Point

You say Kaminsky – and I say Kaminski

Not long ago, two similar-sounding names would come up in the public airwaves from time to time, on Long Island and beyond, and cause a bit of passing confusion.

Between May 2016 and July 2022, lawyer Todd Kaminsky of Long Beach was the elected Democrat representing the 9th Senate District. Nowadays he’s with the large law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Hearing him mentioned on any given day might have clicked off a conflation with Tom Kaminski, a veteran news professional whose name you’d hear for decades on WCBS-880, as the station’s helicopter traffic reporter.

Sometimes the question would be raised in casual conversation: Which one’s which? Are they related? (They aren’t). The former state senator does have a famous relative — his great uncle, the 98-year-old comedy giant Mel Brooks.

This week, it was announced the all-news radio station is changing its format to sports and its ownership to ESPN. In its story, The New York Times wrote Kaminski’s traffic reports in Chopper 88 as an example of how "to New Yorkers, the features and names became internalized mantras."

In telling the story, the Times innocuously fell into the old soundalike trap. On Tuesday, its online news story carried a correction: "An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the man who does traffic reports for WCBS Newsradio. He is Tom Kaminski, not Todd Kaminsky."

What’s in a name? In our news ecosystem, it’s everything.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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